There’s not much to fear from Fear The Walking Dead, the spinoff of—ahem, companion to—AMC’s monster-mash mega-hit The Walking Dead. At least, there’s not much of it to fear. The companion premieres August 23 with an appetizer-sized six-episode season, just enough to whet the appetite for the West Coast zombie apocalypse. But AMC is so excited about the show, the network not only preemptively renewed the series for a second season, it will more than double the episode order to 15 hours.
AMC President Charlie Collier confirmed the order at the Television Critics Association Press Tour, where the cast and creators of Fear appeared to discuss the Los Angeles-set series. Showrunner Dave Erickson was understandably protective about the details of season one, but he did confirm that there are no plans to make the companion series intersect with “the mothership.” “There’s no plan to have Easter eggs or character references,” said Erickson. He also defended the show’s ho-hum title, saying the producers wanted to keep the original title in the new show without imitating the format of police procedural franchises. “We wanted Walking Dead in the title, and what we wanted to avoid doing was something like Walking Dead: Los Angeles, so we put something before The Walking Dead.” Have Salmon Croquettes With The Walking Dead didn’t make the cut for obvious reasons.