AMC is so confident in Fear The Walking Dead, the spinoff of their popular zombie drama The Walking Dead, that they went ahead and gave it a rare two season order right out of the gate. It makes sense: TWD is the highest-rated show on television in the coveted 18-49 demographic, ending Season 5 with a staggering 8.2 rating. (By comparison, the highest-rated broadcast drama of the season, Empire, garnered a 6.9 rating for its finale.) Other than its cast, its basic concept, and one 15-second teaser featuring almost zero footage, almost nothing is known about the show — including its premiere date. But it looks like AMC is finally wrapping up for the spinoff's "late summer" debut, as executive producer Robert Kirkman has finally spilled some details on his core cast of characters.
The creator of the Walking Dead comics released the scoop to Entertainment Weekly along with a handful of new photos featuring stars Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Alycia Debnam-Carey, and Maestro Hall. (More on them later.) The rest of Fear's cast is rounded out by Elizabeth Rodriguez (Orange Is The New Black), Sandrine Holt (House Of Cards), Mercedes Masohn (666 Park Avenue), and Rubén Blades (Gideon's Crossing). "The coolest thing about this show is that it tells its own story. You don't need to have watched The Walking Dead to understand Fear The Walking Dead," Kirkman said in a featurette on his new show. "We're pushing things back. We're going to be dealing with the initial start of the outbreak."
Now find out what Kirkman has to say about Fear's five main characters:
Madison (Kim Dickens)
Although she's been working steadily in Hollywood for two decades, Dickens is now most well-known for two high-profile roles she tackled last year: first as Detective Boney in David Fincher's Gone Girl, and then as White House correspondent Kate Baldwin in Season 3 of Netflix's House Of Cards. She stars in Fear as Madison, a guidance counselor who's also a single mother raising two children after the recent death of her husband. "She's a character that has experienced a very abrupt change to her life that she has had to adapt to," Kirkman says. "So there’s an inherent strength in this single mother that makes her, in some ways, uniquely adapted to live in the zombie apocalypse."
Travis (Cliff Curtis)
Curtis plays Madison's new boyfriend, Travis, a divorced teacher. Like Dickens, he has an extensive resume, although audiences may not yet know him by name. He has had recurring roles on shows like Trauma, Body Of Proof, Missing, and Gang Related and has played supporting parts in films like Training Day, Sunshine, and Live Free Or Die Hard. Kirkman describes Travis as, "a character that represents a sense of stability in Madison’s life, and so he’s really 100 percent on board. With the craziness of her life, he’s her rock." This being TV, things of course aren't always what they seem: "He's definitely got a darkness to his past. There are some interesting revelations to come with him, I’ll just say that."
Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey)
This Australian actress recently had a recurring role on The CW's The 100, and she also appeared in two thrillers last year, the scary cult movie The Devil's Hand and the natural disaster flick Into The Storm. On Fear, she'll play Madison's daughter Alicia, who is "your atypical teenage girl," according to Kirkman. How so? "She excels at school. She’s on her way to college. She’s very self-sufficient. She’s very self-reliant. She’s kind of the model student and the model child." Atypical indeed.
Nick (Frank Dillane)
Audiences already have reason to Fear Dillane, who plays Alicia's brother Nick. The 24-year-old actor is thus far most famous for playing Voldemort himself — or at least young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince's flashback scenes. (He's also the son of Stephen Dillane, aka Game Of Thrones' Stannis Baratheon.) Nick sounds right up Tom Riddle's alley, in that he is, "pretty much a parent’s worst nightmare. He has flunked out of college, had a lot of trouble, got mixed up in some bad elements, and is definitely the problem child," says Kirkman. "And it’s exacerbated for him to be next to this perfect sister who seemingly doesn’t have anything going on in her life that is negative."
Matt (Maestro Harrell)
Finally, there's Alicia's boyfriend Matt. He's played by Harrell, most widely known for his roles on two very different shows: HBO's drama The Wire and ABC's comedy Suburgatory. The actor hadn't been listed on any of AMC's previously released material — in fact, the above photo is the first anyone had heard of Harrell's involvement in the show — and given the fact that Kirkman didn't mention anything specifically about his character certainly raises the question: Just how long will Matt last once the outbreak starts?
Images: AMC
