Last week, we saw the first image from the upcoming ‘Walking Dead’ companion series known as ‘Cobalt’. Along with that picture came the announcement that AMC has picked up the show for a two-season order, the first of which is set to debut late this summer. Details are slim on the new zombie drama starring Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, and Alycia Debnam Carey, but the creator of this world recently shared some new information at South By Southwest.
Unlike the popular comic series that spawned the acclaimed TV show, ‘Cobalt’ won’t be based on anything that we’ve seen from Robert Kirkman’s walker-infested tales. But the creator of ‘The Walking Dead’ did drop some new details while appearing on a panel called “Creative Activism’ at the popular Austin, Texas festival recently that explain that the new show will act as somewhat of a prequel to the Rick Grimes’ story (but not actually a prequel):
“It’s not going to relate to the comics at all. From the beginning of the show one thing we’ve heard is, ‘What’s going on over here or there.’ So the intent of the new show is to expand that world and show another corner of the United States and what’s happening there. The timeline is taking place a little bit earlier timeframe than the original show. Rick Grimes woke up from a coma and was like, ‘Oh, man, zombies, weird!’ We’re going to possibly see that unfold a little more in the other show. But I wouldn’t call it ‘prequel’ because the entirety of the show is not going take place before [‘The Walking Dead’]. It will eventually form a path running concurrently.”
Because the two shows will catch up with each other eventually in terms of the timelines, there’s definitely potential for crossovers or at the very least some sort of connectivity in the narration. However, Kirkman makes it clear that though there may be elements of the flagship series in the spinoff and vice versa, both shows can stand on their own separately:
”One thing that we’re doing with the new show that we’re trying with everything is it’s not derivative. It’s standing on its own. You can watch it by itself and get your own experience. But if you are watching both shows there are things like, ‘Oh they discovered this, or they discovered that in a different way.’ There are a lot of things about ‘The Walking Dead’ world these characters have to learn or figure out to get by. And there may be some things that are discovered in the companion show that haven’t been discovered in the other show yet. So there could be like a thing where, ‘Oh, they encountered a zombie in season 4 in The Walking Dead that could do this and now we know why that was.’ So we’re going to be doing things like that are going to be pretty cool, but for the most part [the two shows] should be able to stand alone.”
All this new information jives with previous reports that stated the companion series would take place during the early days of the zombie outbreak in Los Angeles. And now that we know that the timeline will catch up to ‘The Walking Dead’ at some point, it adds a really interesting layer to the show.
What do you think about the latest details for ‘Cobalt’? Are there any ‘Walking Dead’ characters that you hope will crossover onto the show when the timelines catch up? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
