At the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour Friday, the producers of Fear the Walking Dead spoke about what to expect from the prequel/spinoff series of AMC’s smash hit, The Walking Dead.

As the show begins, something is beginning to happen in Los Angeles, where Fear the Walking Dead is set, but don’t expect to see the city overun by zombies immediately. Said executive producer Dave Erickson, “We purposely built the show a little bit more slowly than the original.” That being said, there are zombies – referred to as “infected” here, because, Erickson joked, “We're coming up with as much cool West Coast verbiage as we can.”

Fear The Walking Dead Photo Gallery:


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“But, no, we will see walkers,” Erickson contnued. “There will be a build. We will get to a place over the course of the season where we will see elements of the original show sort of thread in throughout our story. But it is by design. We tried to slow burn the story - make it as much about the anxiety and tension and paranoia that goes with this outbreak as much as it is about the actual confrontations with zombies.” Just don't expect to get an explanation for what caused the zombie outbreak - as on The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead will not offer any "it was a virus"/"it was a meteor" type backstory, but simply show the outbreak beginning, with no one within the show knowing why.

Fear the Walking Dead centers on an LA couple, Travis (Cliff Curtis) and Madison (Kim Dickens), who both have children (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey, Frank Dillane and Lorenzo James Henrie) from prior marriages. While Madison’s husband passed away, Travis’ ex-wife (Elizabeth Rodriguez) is also a part of the series.

Said Erickson, “One of the benefits we have, because it is something of a slower burn, is we do get to steep ourselves in this incredibly dysfunctional, blended family dynamic. We get to really, I think, steep ourselves in the problems and conflicts of that family. And ultimately, that's where the story's going to start. When we get to Season 2 -- and we'll start breaking that in the next couple of weeks -- it's really going to be how have things fractured for this family and what's different. That will be our starting point… and then there are zombies.”

As for how to stop a slow burn from feeling too slow for audiences, EP Adam Davidson said, “We're experiencing the fall of Los Angeles, the largest city in the United States, through the eyes of this family. So you're really in the trenches with them and they're part and parcel together. And I think that's what makes it exciting, and that's what also keeps it emotional and grounded. That said, it is a city of 14 million people, so there is going to be plenty of encounterings of the walker type or the infected type.” Added Erickson, “And when it gets really boring, we go to a laugh track!”

Season 1 is comprised of just six episodes, while it was revealed today that the already-ordered Season 2 will have fifteen episodes. Erickson also noted, “We structured the [first] season in a way that they're still somewhat insulated from the greater truth of what's going on. And part of what they're going to see and explore when we get into Season 2 will be that very thing.”

When the producers were asked how, at a certain point, Fear the Walking Dead won't simply begin to more closely resemble The Walking Dead, Erickson remarked, “What you're asking is are we going to get to a place where we're looking for the next sanctuary and we're battling our way into the sanctuary, and that's not something that I anticipate in Season 2. I can't speak for Season 3 because it hasn't been ordered yet, and I'm not that far ahead.”

EP Dave Alpert said Fear the Walking Dead let them deal with “so many unanswered questions about how the apocalypse happened, what does it look like, how did information get out. We thought it was such a ripe area to do something that wouldn't in any way tread on what we call 'the mother ship.'"

Reiterating comments made before, Erickson said that when it comes to the two Walking Dead shows, “There's no crossover plans right now. We're telling parallel narratives that live under the same mythological umbrella. And I think the instinct for me would be I would love to see those stories conflate at some point, but there's no plans to do so.” That said, Alpert remarked, with a smile, “There might be an Easter egg or two. It's possible…”

Adked about the title Fear the Walking Dead, Erickson recalled, “There was a lot of other titles that we came up. I think fundamentally you're inheriting... obviously it's a major franchise. There are a legion of fans. So we wanted 'Walking Dead' in the title, and what we wanted to avoid was doing 'The Walking Dead: Los Angeles.' So we put something in the beginning rather than at the end. And my sense is we're already referring to it as 'Fear.' I think 'Fear' is going to become the shorthand title for the show.”

He added that there is an “excellent line” in the show itself coming up, “that incorporates the word ‘fear’ in a beautiful way, which I know will end up in the promos. But yeah, there was obviously a practical reason to do it, but I also think it speaks very much to what the characters are going to go through, obviously, and where the show is going to go to a certain degree.”

Travis and Madson both work in the same high school as the series begins (he’s a teacher, she’s a guidance coounserlor) , and Erickson noted this was thanks to the guidance of Walking Dead creator/executive producer Robert Kirkman.

“Robert wanted to be as far away from... Look, in the original show, you've got two cops. You've got people who know how to handle guns. You have people with leadership skills. And it was important that we started from a place where we had characters who are completely unprepared for what was to come. And we've got a teacher, a guidance counselor. It was very much by design, and I think it's something that was specific that Robert wanted to bring to it when this all began.”

Fear the Walking Dead debuts Sunday, August 23rd on AMC.