But it also raises a problematic question for the series, one that’s just slightly different from that asked of the original: How can this thing differentiate itself? According to the show’s creators, the first season of Fear the Walking Dead is going to take place in the four to five months when, in the chronology of the universe, Sheriff Rick Grimes was unconscious in a Georgia hospital. It’s unexplored territory, and as long as we’re waiting for the final shoe of civilization’s collapse to drop, Fear will be able to distinguish itself from its predecessor. But what happens after that goes down? The show’s already been renewed for a second season, and at first glance there are two different directions things could end up going.
One would be to eke out additional storylines in the time before the world collapses. The other would be to follow a group of survivors as they struggle their way through a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland. The first has potential, but seems unlikely; the second is something we’ve already seen. It’s called The Walking Dead, and it airs Sundays on AMC.