Walking Dead spinoff rises

The cast and crew of Fear the Walking Dead were on hand for the invite-only screening of the first episode at Reading Cinemas.

The Walking Dead franchise is going on a bender.
The upcoming spinoff series, Fear the Walking Dead, premiered during Comic-Con after a panel that introduced the cast of the new zombie apocalypse drama to 6,500 fans.
"It starts as a family drama, and we filter the apocalypse through that," executive producer Dave Erickson told the audience Friday in Hall H, the largest venue at the San Diego Convention Center.
Fear the Walking Dead is serving as a prequel to the hugely popular Walking Dead series and will be examining how the zombie apocalypse started in Los Angeles. The AMC companion show takes place during the weeks that Walking Dead protagonist Rick Grimes was in a coma outside Atlanta in that show's first episode.
The cast and crew of Fear the Walking Dead were on hand for the invite-only screening of the first episode at Reading Cinemas.
The initial installment centered on guidance counselor Madison (played by Kim Dickens) and her recently divorced partner Travis (Cliff Curtis, pictured) seeking help for her heroin-addicted son Nick (Frank Dillane, pictured), who recently woke up to discover that his girlfriend had apparently become undead.
The moody first installment focused far less on the flesh-eating action depicted in The Walking Dead and more on emotional tensions between family members.