LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The forthcoming The Walking Dead companion series might be taking place in the early days of the zombie apocalypse, but executive producer Robert Kirkman has no intention of using the show to explain too many details about the zombie virus outbreak.

"[Learning the origins] is not the priority in Walking Dead; that's not the priority in Fear The Walking Dead," Kirkman told a packed panel at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. "Every other story deals with that stuff and we're concerned about the heart."

Which is not to say, of course, that Kirkman doesn't have the origin story worked out; he simply never thought it was the most interesting aspect of the series he wanted to make.

"I know the story, but I've never bothered to write it down," he said. "Let's hope I don't die."

So what will Fear The Walking Dead be?

The show, which debuts this summer and is set in Los Angeles, will take viewers "back to a timid time when the walking dead were more dangerous and more of an ever present threat," according to Kirkman.

"It's possible the people we're following on this show are a little more deadly," he said.

Fear The Walking Dead, which was first ordered to pilot in September 2014 and given a two-season order back in March, will act as a standalone series — meaning there's nothing in the mother show you have to know in order to watch — and have a timeline that doesn't necessarily always stay ahead of what has been seen on The Walking Dead.

"It's not a prequel in that at the end of this series Rick will wake up from his coma," says Kirkman, adding that there will be some timeline overlap.

Schedule wise, the first season of Fear The Walking Dead will wrap up prior to the start of The Walking Dead season 6, which will debut on October.

The series is easily one of the most anticipated shows of the summer, with many wondering whether AMC can capture zombie magic in a bottle once again. But AMC president Charlie Collier remains hopeful.

"It really is a fresh take," he says. "It's not something you've seen before."