'The Walking Dead' Is Putting Zombies On A Plane

Against all good sense, the world has fallen in love with zombies over the past few years. Not literally, of course — that would just turn you into a zombie, too, and then Earth would just be all zombies, and that wouldn't be good. But zombies in the media are a Big Thing. The zombies on The Walking Dead are probably the most famous in the genre, particularly because they're so well done and, frankly, terrifying. My endless admiration and respect goes out to the show's special effects team and makeup artists who have made me deathly afraid of, well, death by zombie...but in a good way, if that's possible. But things are about to get a whole lot scarier, because it's just been announced that The Walking Dead will air a standalone zombie attack special that takes place on a plane! Samuel L. Jackson would not be impressed.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the half-hour special will be set during the same time as The Walking Dead's spinoff Fear The Walking Dead and will basically feature a bunch of airline travelers facing a zombie attack in mid-air. The one person who survives will end up on the latter show during Season 2, which should make things pretty interesting. The story will debut online, and then a new chapter will be revealed during The Walking Dead's airing on AMC during the ad breaks. Beyond that, we don't know much, but that's a lot of amazing info to process, right?!

My first question is about how zombies got on the plane to begin with. Even if it was just one walker, they're pretty clearly different from us regular, healthy folk, so it's hard to believe that they'd slip by security and onto the plane undetected (unless, of course, the walker in question so happened to be infected before boarding the plane and not in advanced stages of zombie-dom, though it'd be hard for things to escalate so quickly, even if it was a cross-country flight). It all seems a bit far-fetched to me — and yes, I realize we're talking about a show about a zombie apocalypse here — but I'm sure they'll explain that when the show airs.

That being said, I'm not really too hung up on the general premise. What I do know is that putting zombies on a plane is the most amazing idea ever. Not only are The Walking Dead's zombies terrifying on the ground, but putting them in the air, where the passengers have no chance at all for escape, is brutally, deliciously scary and the perfect recipe for an amazing spinoff.

How many pieces this standalone will be comprised of and when it'll air or when it'll air is yet to be revealed, but I know one thing: I absolutely can't wait.

Images: Gene Page/AMC; Giphy