Warning: This article contains spoilers for the series premiere of Fear The Walking Dead .
In past years, the gap left between the season finale of The Walking Dead and the new season premiere of The Walking Dead left fans in agony, searching for every bit of news of what they might expect when the series finally resumes. No more. Fear The Walking Dead will now fill at least a part of that gap, scheduled to air in the summer months while The Walking Dead is on hiatus.
Adding to the known cast of Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, Alycia Debnam Carey, and Frank Dillane, it has been announced that Elizabeth Rodriguez ( Orange is the New Black ) has also been confirmed to join Fear The Walking Dead’s cast. Although Ms. Rodriguez has been added to the Walking Dead spin-off as a series regular, she won’t be appearing in the first episode. Fear The Walking Dead has already gone into production and the first episode was shot before Elizabeth was brought on board.
Reports from inside sources state the general plot will vary greatly from The Walking Dead primary series, particularly in the areas of character development and interactions. While The Walking Dead features a group (or groups) of strangers thrown together and forced to develop relationships by the circumstances of the zombie apocalypse, Fear The Walking Dead will focus on a single family. It might turn out that Fear The Walking Dead will be more character-oriented, as the stories will focus on the way a tightly-knit family unit reacts and adapts to the zombie apocalypse.
Considering this plot, it seems Elizabeth Rodriguez’s addition to Fear The Walking Dead will be as an outsider, someone whom the Tomkins family will either have to aid and ally, or possibly she will pose a threat that the others must defeat.
Fear The Walking Dead executive producer Greg Nicotero revealed in a recent interview that the zombies needed as much consideration as the cast of living characters, due to the setting of the new Walking Dead spin-off.
“You know, Fear the Walking Dead happens almost before [ The Walking Dead ] show even premiered. One thing that we play up on the show is the environment and how that plays on the walkers…In Georgia, it’s very humid and sunny, so we take that into consideration. In Los Angeles, it’s a lot more dry, so we’ve had conversation about what that would do to the look of the walkers.”
Fear The Walking Dead is set to premiere in July on AMC and through Hulu’s online streaming service .
[Featured image courtesy of AMC]