'Walking Dead' spinoff enters changing world
LOS ANGELES — Normalcy rules at the beginning of Fear the Walking Dead , but only for a moment.
In Fear (Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT), AMC’s companion to zombie hit The Walking Dead, widowed Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and divorced Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) have formed a new family in a working-class, multicultural L.A. neighborhood. Travis tries to relate to her children, honor student Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and drug-addicted Nick (Frank Dillane), while mending fences with his own son, Christopher (Lorenzo James Henrie).
“It’s a very recognizable family, coming together as (a) second union,” Dickens says during a break in shooting. “The audience will get to see how they co-exist, and how it either brings us closer together or tears us apart as all this starts to happen.”
“All this” is the unthinkable: the dead coming back to ravenous life and destroying society, just as it did in top-rated Dead, which returns for a sixth season Oct. 11. As it slowly comprehends the threat, the blended family grows closer, as Travis seeks to protect his son and ex-wife Liza Ortiz (Elizabeth Rodriguez) and he and Madison encounter barber Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades), a Salvadoran immigrant, and his family.
The characters at first don't realize why and how quickly the world is changing (although fans of the first series will), with even-more-serious L.A. traffic jams and rising school absences.
"You're thinking it's everything but what it is, because it's bigger than something you can wrap your brain around," says Rodriguez, whose character's knowledge as a nursing student plays a significant role. "You try to find other meaning before you can begin to accept" it.
Their instinct is to understand and help the undead, says Dave Erickson, who created the show with Dead executive producer Robert Kirkman. "The first reaction is not going to be, 'Oh, that's a zombie. Let me hit him on the head with something heavy.' When they do go to a violent place, there have to be repercussions."
(Asked about three African-American casualties in the first two episodes, Erickson says the show, set away from Hollywood and other typical glamour settings, will reflect L.A.'s diversity, but that "nobody's safe. Everyone gets bit.")
Madison and Travis approach the zombies and the breakdown of society from different perspectives, revealing strengths and weaknesses.
“I’m more the idealist, she’s more the pragmatist," Curtis says. "I’m not prepared for what’s happening. She’s much more able to see what’s happening and respond quickly. It’s intriguing when you have this leading guy, and he’s doing everything right, but that just might not cut it in this world.”
Nick may be in a better position to cope with a crumbling civilization because of time spent in the drug netherworld, Dillane says. "As an addict, he's already been living life or death," he says. "He knows how humanity works. I think he's in good stead."
His Berkeley-bound younger sister, Alicia, however, has her great expectations dashed. "She sees a future for herself, which makes what happens so traumatic, because she loses everything," Debnam-Carey says. "She has the furthest to fall."
Erickson says the idea of a Walking Dead spinoff may seem opportunistic, but says the show is different enough in time, place and characters to stand on its own.
"I think some people assume this show is being done purely for financial reasons," he says, adding that Kirkman, other producers and the network were "rigorous" about the show being creatively distinctive. "AMC wanted it to share elements but be its own show."