Interview - Robert Kirkman

ROBERT KIRKMAN (Executive Producer, Writer)

Do the rules of The Walking Dead universe apply the same for Fear?

“

Everything that happens in Fear The Walking Dead is in the same universe as The Walking Dead, so any rule that we find out and anything they see in the early days is definitely something that was happening in the past of the other show. These two shows are very intertwined in the same world, even if their characters aren’t necessarily going to interact because of geographical distances. So anything that you learn from Fear the Walking Dead will apply to the mythology of The Walking Dead and vice versa. You are going to get to see that the characters learn that they’re all infected in a much different way. But all the rules do apply and are the same. That will be some of the fun if you’re watching both shows.

”

Why LA for the setting of Fear?

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Los Angeles is such an interesting city in and of itself, just because of the vast melting pot of diversity that California has become. The urban sprawl – it covers a tremendous amount of land, and it’s got an extremely dense population, so there are a lot of things about that that lend itself well to good storytelling in the zombie apocalypse. But also, this is a city where a vast number of people come to the city to reinvent themselves, or they’re new to the city for various reasons. So there’s definitely some aspects of that we’ll also be playing with as well.

”

Below is an open letter from Robert Kirkman, released a few weeks before the premiere in 2015.

“	Here we go again. I don't say that with the exhausted tone one might expect coming from someone embarking on a companion show while also working on the sixth season of the original. Truth be told, I would have to fill this space with exclamation points to accurately represent just how excited I am about Fear the Walking Dead. It's so cool for me to be expanding The Walking Dead universe in such exciting and new ways. Those have been our buzzwords since we first started talking about this show: "exciting" and "new." I'm so happy to finally be to the point where we can share the show with the world and everyone can see exactly what that means. The Walking Dead has always been about the characters. It's been the struggles of Rick, Michonne, Daryl, Maggie, Glenn, Carol and the rest, who are equally as important, but if I were to list all the characters in our cast it would take up more space than those exclamation points... and if I included those we've lost along the way? We'd be here all day! It's been the characters, the people of this world that have brought viewers back episode after episode for what is now going on six years. Now we get to introduce you to Madison, Travis, Alicia, Nick, Liza, Chris, Daniel, Ofelia and well... the cast continues to grow each episode... and yes... we do lose a few along the way. But where the "exciting" and "new" comes in... is that these people have their own experiences and reasons to survive. They're complicated, real characters who will not be dealing with the undead the same way. They'll learn new things, they'll find new tools, they'll learn faster or slower but what we end up with is a very, VERY different show... set in a world we LOVE exploring as much as we'd all NEVER want to live there. I want to thank everyone reading this for being at least some small part of helping us grow into The Walking Dead family. We started small, and we've grown and grown year after year as more actors, writers, directors, critics, fans, Facebookers and Twitterers have joined the mix. And now, with Fear the Walking Dead, that family is growing even more... and I know we're all going to open our hearts... and guts... to give these new additions a warm welcome. I think you'll agree after watching this series... they've earned it.	”
	— Robert Kirkman, Backwoods, CA, 2015

Source: AMC