AMC, the company that developed the hit adaptation of the Image comic, The Walking Dead has announced that as well as preparing for the fourth season of the show (which will begin broadcast in the US in October), they are also developing a 'companion' series for the show and hoping to launch it in 2015.
There will be a similar creative team behind the show ( original co-creator Robert Kirkman alongside Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert) and will feature another part of the existing world featured in the show.
“After 10 years of writing the comic book series and being so close to the debut of our fourth, and in my opinion, best season of the TV series, I couldn’t be more thrilled about getting the chance to create a new corner of The Walking Dead universe. 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," Kirkman announced through a statement of intent from AMC. With something of a likely intentional turn-of-phrase, AMC's president and general manager Charlie Collier said the idea of a spin-off show was a 'no-brainer'.
Little is known about how the show would differ from its parent series, though - as he notes - it would free up Kirkman from fan expectations from previously existing storylines and characters already featured in the decade old comic-book series, which is still going strong. (One idea fans might like is a series based around Norman Reedus' character Daryl, who was created especially for the show and has become a favourite). The television series shoots in Atlanta, so it may be that another show would feature a different area of the US. Kirkman has said previously that he has no intention of addressing how the zombie apocalypse actually began and that the disaster is mainly a way to highlight what happens to the survivors... the real 'walking dead' of the title.
The UK broadcast of the current show will be seen on FX this October.
