The Walking Dead Spinoff Series: Updates on Crew, Casting, Filming, Release Date

The Walking Dead spinoff series, which is slated to be released in 2015, is getting a little bit clearer.

The spinoff is reportedly “official” now even though it’s basically been official since September. At the same time, plot details have been scarce and cast news has been nonexistent.

Let’s take a look at what we know so far:

-The spinoff will be set in the same world as “The Walking Dead,” but won’t include any of the characters from the show or the comics.

“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,” Robert Kirkman, the creator of the comics and executive producer of the TV series, told IGN. “The opportunity to make a show that isn’t tethered by the events of the comic book, and is truly a blank page, has set my creativity racing,” he said in the original announcement.

-The location won’t be in Georgia.

“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. It definitely won’t be set in Georgia, I can at least say that,” Kirkman said.

-The creators of the show are serious about its success.

“It’s important to us that this show exists on its own. The spinoff has to be a show worthy of existing, or else we’ve all sold out. So that’s something we’re all working hard towards doing, and I think we can pull it off. I think that the ideal situation is, when you’re watching the spinoff, you’re like, ‘Wow, this is a really awesome show,'” Kirkman explained. “The whole other show doesn’t need to exist for this show to be cool and stand on its own.”

-There’s lots of possibilities for the plot in the spinoff. “

I’m very excited about this idea of doing this companion show for The Walking Dead because people aren’t quite aware of all the different new angles we can go in and the new kind of stories we can tell and just how unique and exciting and how much this show can stand alone. I think people are going to be pretty taken aback by how cool this companion show can be,” Kirkman told E! News. Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert are also executive producers.

-Dave Erickson, who worked as producer and writer on AMC’s “Low Winter Sun” (which was recently canceled), and who wrote 17 episodes of FX Network’s “Sons of Anarchy,” was recently announced as being an executive producer and writer for the spinoff.

Kirkman said that he’s a huge fan of Erickson and that “he was the best possible guy for the job.”

-AMC’s understandably excited about the spinoff as The Walking Dead just keeps getting more popular with each season.

“Building on the success of the most popular show on television for adults 18-49 is literally a no-brainer,” said Charlie Collier, AMC’s president and general manager, in the spinoff announcement. “We look forward to working with Robert, Gale and Dave again as we develop an entirely new story and cast of characters. It’s a big world and we can’t wait to give fans another unforgettable view of the zombie apocalypse.”

-Apart from being set in the same world as The Walking Dead there’s not much to go on so far in regards to plot, and no cast members have been announced or even rumored.

AMC programming head Joel Stillerman told Vulture back in January: “That’s really in the incubation stages. The one thing that I’ll share is just an anecdote that Robert shared with us. He has such a specific vision that he laid out really clearly in the first issue of the comic book. And I encourage anybody who’s interested in the show to go read the note that he wrote in the first issue of the comic. His motivation for telling that story was so clear and so powerful, and it served as such a great north star for the show. We kicked around a few ideas, but primarily what he’s working on is, what is the idea that gives [him] as clear a mandate to make another version of this show as [he] had for the first one? What is going on [now] is a more philosophical discussion over why there should be another version of the show. Once we answer that, we’ll zero in on the specific creative.”

-The originally announced release date was going to be sometime in 2015, but Uproxx claims: “That’s not necessarily the case, anymore.”

It seems unlikely that AMC would wait until 2016, so perhaps that indicates a possible premiere later this year.

-The Walking Dead airs on Sunday nights from October to March, with a break in the winter.

It’s unclear if the spinoff would air on Sunday nights between April and October or on another night while The Walking Dead is on.