‘The Walking Dead’ spin-off (thankfully) not just a prequel
The spin-off series for “The Walking Dead” has managed to keep most of its secrets buried over the past couple of months. After all, all that is really known about it for now is that it will be set in Los Angeles, it has a teacher and a guidance counselor as main character, and that it will start off showing you some of the early days of the zombie apocalypse.
What we managed to learn today, though, does complicate the show for those who wanted to give it the “prequel” label, even more so than “Better Call Saul” did when they jumped forward to Omaha at the start of the series. While at SXSW this weekend, comic creator and executive producer Robert Kirkman made it clear (per Entertainment Weekly) that the spin-off will move at a slightly brisker pace than the original, and eventually is going to catch up to where the AMC series currently is within its own narrative:
“It’s not going to relate to the comics at all … From the beginning of the show one thing we’ve heard is, ‘What’s going on over here or there.’ So the intent of the new show is to expand that world and show another corner of the United States and what’s happening there. The timeline is taking place a little bit earlier than the original show. Rick Grimes woke up from a coma and was like, ‘Oh, man, zombies, weird!’ We’re going to possibly see that unfold a little more in the other show. But I wouldn’t call it ‘prequel’ because the entirety of the show is not going take place before [The Walking Dead]. It will eventually form a path running concurrently.”
Kirkman added that while there may be some thematic connections in places, the idea is not necessarily here to shape the show into one big series of spin-off episodes. They are mostly going to be in separate worlds, and focus on their own characters more so thank thinking of ways to bring them together.
There is still a possibility of almost anything happening. Why? Remember that this is “The Walking Dead,” and almost anything does happen here the majority of the time.
Given that the network has already renewed this spin-off series for a second season, there is going to be plenty of time here to figure things out.
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