The YouTube Video of the FTWD panel at SDCC is posted below - Most of the information and phrasing here tweeted from @FTWDFamily (thank you)
On the panel were, from left to right, Dave Erickson (Erickson's first Comic Con panel), David Alpert, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero, Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane , Alycia Debnam Carey, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Lorenzo James Henrie , Ruben Blades and Mercedes Mason. Chris Hardwick chaired the panel.
Fear The Walking Dead Comic Con Panel Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, Elizabeth Rodriguez-0
- Erickson - Kirkman wanted a major city and to see its fall, they chose LA because a lot of people do go there to reinvent themselves.
- Erickson - Family drama, filter the apocalypse through the family we've come to know.
- Erickson - End of FearTWD season 1 won't be the point at which Rick wakes up from his coma!! Season 1 will be the first 2-3, maybe 4, weeks of Rick's 4-5 weeks in his coma (in the pilot)
- Erickson - Nick's "a bit of a prophet of the apocalypse" and that specifically Nick will have to reinvent himself.
- We're going to see from the FearTWD characters which ones "from a coal become a diamond & which ones are going to just crumble."
- Gimple - talked about the differences between TWD characters and FTWD characters, the FEAR people are teachers, not sheriffs... Nicotero says that they are ordinary people, not larger than life like Rick & Daryl
- Major part of the show is going to be the fracture between people who start protecting themselves quickly versus the laissez-faire people who think the plague isn't that big of a deal ("the authorities would tell us!") & won't come to anything. Erickson says it's going to be fascinating to watch that process.
- Alicia's character is so ambitious (because of her broken family) about her future that she "has the furthest to fall", with the collapse of civilisation destroying her dreams & plans (19m)
- Liza's character wasn't originally supposed to be Latina & Elizabeth Rodriguez seems pleased & rather proud about that (I think she refers to the barbershop scenes in the trailer when she says there's also a specific part of the story that focuses on that cultural aspect of things)
- Ruben Blades plays the role of Daniel Salazar . Talks a lot about how grateful he is & what a great opportunity it is for him to be on the show = sounds like his character's gonna die by the end of the 1st season. at 47m45s in he says his band is waiting for him to die on the show so he can go back to recording with them so I guess he's not planning a long term recurring role...
- Rodriguez - Liza was married to Travis for 13 yrs and divorced for 3, trainee nurse, protective of Chris (16yo). Best quote of the panel from Rodriguez "It would be a sitcom if it wasn't an apocalypse"
- Lorenzo - met everyone the day of the table read
- Ruben Blades - Daniel is a complex character, attracted him to the role, loves scifi. Daniel's forced to revisit a past he's been trying to get away from.
- Mercedes Mason - plays Daniel's daughter, wants to improve herself, protective of her parents, realises she can rely on her parents more than she thought
- The producers of OITNB (Orange Is The New Black) adore The Walking Dead - were totally & completely excited Elizabeth Rodriguez got the part of Liza in FEAR (From another source I read that Alicia DC is also returning to her part in The 100, and that AMC had negotiations with The 100 on that subject)
- Will the cast of FEAR ever meet the cast of TWD? "There are no plans right now to conflate the two stories" (Except of course that we've all seen the selfies of everyone getting together at the AMC party!)
- That clip where Madison tells the kid they need to stop spending so much time online? The kid's name is Tobias & Dickens says her character has a special relationship with him that will allow her to listen to him, even though her character's obviously informed by other things as well
- Erickson : "there's definitely going to be a lot of female badassery very early on". Ok then. Good.
- "LA [is] so spread out it's actually isolating in a way." - Erickson . There's the obvious expectaion that they will be rescued, but also that if you have money you can buy your way out of the apocalypse
- Gale Anne Hurd Anne Hurd - International simultaneous broadcast of FEAR: So, no spoilers on Twitter :) But it does mean everyone else has to watch at silly times of the day *sigh*. I guess we have to wait and see how that works out.
- Chris Hardwick's The Talking Dead is going to follow up the Season 1 finale of FEAR on October 4th.
- Hardwick asked if he's going to be on one of the shows. "If you see me it kind of takes you out of the show" He'd so love it though.
- Oh, and Blades says that Zombies are easier to survive than Predator. Yes, I can see that.