Sunday night shall see AMC’s much anticipated premiere of Fear The Walking Dead, and so fans of the mothership series will rip into the flesh of the new upon arrival. For quite some time, the show’s producers have insisted the show will be different from The Walking Dead. From the setting, to the tone, characters, and even the zombies, the two shows will reportedly only vaguely resemble each other.
Whether these claims are successful, we won’t have much longer to wait and see. The spin-off will be very family oriented, as opposed to focusing on a larger group, so that’s one big difference already. For now, showrunner Dave Erickson is putting out the non-“copycatting” word through Entertainment Weekly, but he hopes to insulate himself from comparisons. Good luck on that, buddy. This is what Erickson had to say on the subject:
“I am willfully ignorant of that. I think it’s a blessing. I don’t really see a downside to it. I mean, yes, I think the great part of this is that we are and will continue to receive a lot of attention and then inevitably, you can’t not compare the two shows. I think they’re different in tone, I think they’re different in character and location, obviously, and my hope is that the bulk of the fans who have flocked to The Walking Dead will also appreciate this show as well. I think we’ll come out of the gate strong and then hopefully people will recognize that there are differences.
“It’s still very much a show and a world that Robert [Kirkman] created and I think it’s okay to be a little bit different from the original and create our own vision. Ultimately, I think the fans will appreciate that.”
Fear certainly has a high bar to reach, and Erickson will have a difficult time hiding from comparisons. That’s simply not an achievable goal in the age of social media. For sure, the best thing for any show these days is to achieve trending status on Twitter. That gets the discussion rolling and sets the stage for longevity as a show progresses. This is especially the case when a show moves past the first few seasons and must move past the given show’s gimmick. Although, if The Walking Dead could keep stoking the fires, there’s a lot of hope for Fear as well.
Bring on the zombies.
(via Entertainment Weekly)
