AMC is on the verge of filling its schedule with spinoff series to former and current hits like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. While the former (a.k.a. Better Call Saul) is set to hit the air early next year, news continues to pour in on the companion show to Robert Kirkman’s zombie series.

For a while now, we’ve known that Cliff Curtis (Training Day, Three Kings) is set to play the show’s male lead, ostensibly the spinoff’s equivalent to the parent show’s Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). More recently, the show has been confirmed to be set in Los Angeles, presumably during the zombie apocalypse that fans have gotten to know so well over the last five seasons.

Now Deadline reports that actress Kim Dickens – who recently appeared as Detective Rhonda Boney in David Fincher’s Gone Girl – has joined The Walking Dead spinoff as the female lead. Dickens will play a guidance counselor and mother of two kids (played by the previously announced Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam Carey), who is romantically involved with a divorced teacher (Curtis). In addition, her character reportedly has a dark past, despite her girl-next-door demeanor.

Dickens has proven her strong screen presence on film (see Gone Girl) and in recurring roles on television series like Lost, Sons of Anarchy and Deadwood. By all accounts, she should make a great addition to AMC’s second zombie-centric show, which is still known only by the cryptic code name Cobalt. The inherent strength and vulnerability that she brings to her work should nicely play into the chaos that her character will no doubt encounter in the world of The Walking Dead.

At this point, little is still known about this new show’s plot, especially with regards to exactly what approach the storytelling will take. The series – created by Kirkman and Sons of Anarchy producer Dave Erickson – sounds like it may simply offer an alternative perspective on the zombie apocalypse, though fans could still expect the series to provide an inventive twist on the existing mythology as a result.

In any case, the show’s pilot (and its director, Adam Davidson) are certainly putting the right pieces in play to create a quality extension of The Walking Dead. Be sure and let us know if you are excited to see what the latest zombie-centric TV show brings to the table, in the comments section of this article.

The Walking Dead spinoff (which still hasn’t received an official title) is expected to air sometime in 2015.