We’ve been hearing for several months that a Walking Dead spinoff, with characters created by comic founder Robert Kirkman, is coming. The companion show will use a completely different set of characters and will take place during the same zombie apocalypse as shown on the original Walking Dead. The series showrunner will be Dave Erickson, who was an executive producer and writer on Sons of Anarchy from 2008-2011. (When SOA was much better than the last two seasons, so that’s promising to me.)
We’ve also heard casting and character news. The show’s main characters are “a male divorced teacher, a female guidance counselor, and her two children, a son and a daughter.” New Zealand actor Cliff Curtis (Whale Rider, Missing), 46, plays the lead and the son and daughter roles are played by Frank Dillane (In The Heart of The Sea, Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince), 23, and Alycia Debnam-Carey (Into The Storm).
The show is tentatively titled Cobalt, although that may just be the placeholder/project name before a more suitable title is found. Entertainment Weekly reports that it’s as-of-yet untitled. The latest news is that it will take place in Los Angeles, which sounds really cool to me. Walking Dead of course is set in Atlanta. Here’s more, thanks to Entertainment Weekly.
The Walking Dead‘s companion project is taking the zombie apocalypse out of Georgia. Sources confirm TV Line‘s report that the as-yet-untitled pilot is set in Los Angeles.
The scenery shift to the West Coast adds some intriguing setting possibilities: Beaches and the ocean, Hollywood, iconic landmarks, walker celebrities (though the cable show could likely never top Bill Murray in Zombieland), a nearby desert, and a larger metropolis to play with than the original hit’s occasional dips into Atlanta.
Just because the setting is Los Angeles doesn’t guarantee it will be shot there. AMC, which had no comment, is still casting the pilot written by Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson
Yeah, Bill Murray was awesome in Zombieland. If you haven’t seen that film yet, rent it over the holidays. I’m a die hard Walking Dead fan and I will watch this spin off. I think that with Kirkman involved it will retain the quality of the original show (which has wavered over the years, sure, but they’re back on track) and I like that they’re mixing it up by making it set on the West Coast. I would love to see Rodeo Drive after the apocalypse. There are so many possibilities for interesting sets and a kind of bleak commentary on celebrity culture and consumerism. That’s what zombies are all about, right? They’re a metaphor for how we’re sleepwalking through life, following the herd, trying to force outsiders to join us in mindlessness. But all zombies aren’t irredeemable like on WD. We can wake up and start to recover. See: Warm Bodies.
TVLine reports that the show is rumored to take place in the early days of the zombie outbreak and that filming will begin in early 2015. The original Walking Dead returns February 8.
Header photo credit: steffne/Photocase. Other photos credit: WENN.com
I’ll watch it! I’m a sucker for zombies. Mind you, I prefer the zombies-as-parables-of-racism sub-genre to the post-apocalypse stuff. Even so, Any Zombie Will Do!
Plus, the original show is like Gilligan’s Island now. They keep trying and failing to leave Georgia, so instead of bringing in new zombie scenarios, we’re getting increasingly horrifying evil human scenarios. I’m over it. Bring on a fresh new take with a new cast and more zombies!
But will Daryl be in it? Because if not, then I’m out!
Loved Warm Bodies. I love TWD, I am so emotionally invested in it. I am cynical that I will love a spin-off as much, but of course I will watch it!
The idea of “walker celebrities” would just be so over the top I would have to watch it. Plus I agree Rodeo Drive with zombies sounds pretty cool( but I have been there and I think there are already zombies walking around)
I’m having horrible images of, oh, Courtney Stodden with her fake boobs hanging by a thread, trying to do the “zombie walk” in her stripper heels.
I would love to see a kartrashian as a zombie but also really don’t think they should be getting any legitimate work or publicity…but imagining one of them all ugly, acting as something with the same level of intelligence as themselves and being stabbed in the head…I wouldn’t be able to resist watching.
Can you imagine celebrities all vying to be “guest zombie of the week”?
Never seen the show (too broke for cable) but the girl in the thumbnail looks like a young Jennifer Garner to me!
No.
+1 Hell no.
I agree. I’m having trouble seeing the original one through to the end.
Kirkman’s writing always wavers! We have 10 years of TWD comics that could be plotted on a graph of alternating good story arcs and worthless $3 issues that contribute nothing to moving the story further. Kirkman is probably the author that I would most likely go all Misery on so I can have closure.
I have hope that a spinoff would be better paced for at least a season.
“go all Misery on so I could have closure” HA!
I can’t wait to see it but setting it in Los Angeles seems typical.
I’m more interested in seeing how other countries are handling the ZA. I’m not interested in The Walking Dead going all CSI. Make it global or it’s boring.
My thoughts exactly…I’ll watch but the LA setting is SO typical and expected.
I tend to avoid spin-offs (Frasier being the only one that had any legs IMO), but YES. I will be there for this.
Really? What about the Happy Days spinoffs…Laverne & Shirley ran for many years, Mork & Mindy was really popular in its day. (we won’t discuss Joanie Loves Chachi…). And Happy Days itself was a spinoff of Love American Style (for those of us old enough to remember that show!)
Or All in the family…it had a lot of good spinoffs; The Jeffersons, Good Times, Maude.
And more currently, NCIS:LA is a great show, and I’m starting to really like NCIS:New Orleans. Actually, the original NCIS could be considered a spinoff of JAG.
And aside from the Walking Dead spinoff, I will be definitely be watching Better Call Saul…especially since I read that Michael McKean has been cast as a regular. 🙂
Walking Dead is almost my favourite show ever… I’ll have to check it out… plus I love zombies.
Me too.
I am in!
Meh, I’ll probably give it a look, but the show seems to be getting kind of played out. To me, this season has been pretty boring
I love TWD so i will watch, but I was hoping for something different. I wanted it to take place somewhere where we would see them in Winter. With Snow. And cold.
I’m waiting for the Walking Dead to make a spinoff in Philly, yo!
If they just went and went, making spinoff a in every major American city, I’d totally watch!
Thanks, I’ll pass. I’m zombied out.
I knew I couldn’t be the only one! I’ve had more than my fill of zombies.
If you like ‘redeemable’ zombies then you definitely should try out In The Flesh, a BBC series. Their zombies are ‘treated’ and sent back into society. It’s an amazing, amazing show.
I don’t think I’ll watch it live – I may binge watch it at some point.
That’s where I’m headed with TWD too. This season, I’ve found I’m enjoying it less when I have time between episodes to think about what’s going on.
Me too. Binge watching this show is so much more satisfying because I can kind of get lost in that world. The weekly shows…I start to lose interest between and IHATE this 2 month break. No no no. But I will binge watch the spin-off. I love the Walking Dead. Breaking Bad, 6 Feet Under and the Killing are, IMO, the best shows I have ever seen…and that includes movies.
Good on Cliff, that’s fantastic news.
I like zombie shows and I am a fan of the walking dead…this show might be good too…but no…I’m not watching this…shrugs
L.A. is too obvious a choice for me. I don’t like the lead actor, so probably will only watch the pilot to see if the other characters are engaging. But celebrity zombie cameos and an overdone setting just don’t get me excited for a good show.
I would totally watch this. I love WD, and Cliff Curtis was totally hot in that cancelled Ashley Judd vehicle.
Ugh. No. more. Walking. Dead. please! I tolerated the Walking Dead comics for awhile. Due to my line of work in digital media, I sometimes have to go through the comics for work and I found the comics were well drawn and I enjoyed some of the storylines. Then last Monday for long and boring and complicated reasons I had to stare at the comics for about 8 hours straight. Let me summarize: zombie, lots of gore, head explodes, eye gets gouged out, some sex, stupid arguments, zombie eats someone’s head off, brain falls out, more sex… NO MORE. Not even the TV show.
LA is a cop out. I want to see Walking Dead in Minnesota. If the walkers don’t get ya, the snow will.