Never 'Fear,' more 'Dead' is on the way

BEVERLY HILLS - Never fear: More walkers are headed your way.

On August 23, AMC will debut the first six-episode season of its Walking Dead prequel Fear the Walking Dead. But even before that debut AMC wants to make sure you know the show is coming back for a second season — and for 15 episodes the second time around.

Set in East Los Angeles a few weeks before The Walking Dead began, Fear stars Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis as a pair of teachers still struggling to blend their two families when they're confronted with a mysterious outbreak of walking-deadism. They don't know what's happening, but we do: They're on the brink of the zombie apocalypse.

Does that mean we'll finally learn the source of the zombie outbreak? "No," producer Dave Erickson said at the Television Critics Association press tour. "The short answer — no." And no, by the way, is also the answer to "Will there be any Walking Dead crossovers."

So yes, the mystery remains. But what remains as well, Erickson says, is the show's character-first approach to story-telling, an approach that makes the inter-personal problems as important as the chomping and stabbing. "We get to really steep ourselves in the problems and conflicts of this family...That will be our starting point. And then there are zombies."

The main characters are high school teachers, Erickson says, because he wanted characters who would be totally unprepared to deal with what they're now facing. But Dickens says she's not so sure that's true: "If you can wrangle teenagers, you can wrangle zombies."

Along with showing the outbreak's effect on this family, Fear will also be able to show its effect on a still functioning society. Seeing how the government and first responders react, says Erickson, will be a big part of the show.

Walking Dead has taken some criticism for its treatment of African-American characters, a treatment that doesn't seem to change early on in Fear, where the few major African-American characters shown in the first few outings all die.

"We set a show intentionally in an urban back drop," says Erickson. "We have an incredibly diverse show and a diverse cast. By its nature, its a zombie apocalypse and people die...There'll be a balance absolutely."