Robert Kirkman Dishes On The Walking Dead Spinoff
This article is more than 2 years old
Given that today is the kick off of season four of AMC’s hit zombie drama The Walking Dead, it seems like as good a time as any to talk about the impending spinoff series that is in the works. Talking to IGN, Robert Kirkman, the comic book creator, who also serves as executive producer of the TV show, shed a little bit of light on the new venture. True to form in situations like this, he didn’t actually say much, but the more we hear, the clearer the ever expanding small screen world of The Walking Dead becomes.
Despite some misgivings about The Walking Dead in general, we’re pretty excited, or at least cautiously optimistic, about seeing how other portions of the world have fared in the face of the overwhelming zombie apocalypse. Mostly, we want to get the hell out of Georgia. Nothing against the Peach State, but there’s a great big world out there to explore, and we want to see more of it. Kirkman confirms as much, saying, “It’s going to be set in this world, but it is a new cast and a new setting, and it’s going to be very different. It’s just exciting to be able to start over again and try to do cool stuff.”
That sounds promising, but again, doesn’t actually reveal anything concrete. Still, you have to like the enthusiasm. He continues to say, “Yeah, it’s a really different location with completely different people, so we are going to see an entirely different corner of the Walking Dead world.”
This seems to indicate that the spinoff will follow a single group or location. Many fans had hoped for something along the lines of an anthology approach. There are so many potential locations and approaches to surviving the end of the world that it could have been cool to be able to explore more than just one of these. No one thought this sort of approach was likely, but this certainly whittles down the possibilities, at least a little bit.
We’ve also been wondering what, if any, connection there will be between the two shows. Ideally, there won’t be any, and from what Kirkman has to say, that’s the way things will play out. He says, “The whole other show doesn’t need to exist for this show to be cool and stand on its own.” Having them cross over would seem cheap, like if Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Carl (Chandler Riggs) just pop in for a guest spot like the wacky neighbors from an 1980’s sitcom. That’s one approach they probably didn’t consider for a second.
At the moment there’s still no timetable for The Walking Dead spinoff, but there’s been enough talk about it that you get the feeling that the wheels are turning at a fairly steady pace. You can bet we’ll keep you updated as we know more. For the time being, however, we’ll just have to get our zombie fix by watching the actual show when it returns to the airwaves at 9 pm tonight.
