‘The Walking Dead’ Comes of Age in the Third Series’ First Trailer

Like most things The Walking Dead, the upcoming spinoff series — the second after Fear The Walking Dead — has been surrounded in secrecy. But at the 2020 debuting show’s first New York Comic Con panel, we learned a lot more about the series, thanks to the first trailer and a panel packed with info.

Held at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, panelists included series co-Creators Scott M. Gimple and Showrunner Matt Negrete, and cast members Aliyah Royale, Alexa Mansour, Annet Mahendru, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston and Nico Tortorella.

And we have known a little about the show before today’s panel. Unlike Fear which takes place a little in the past, and The Walking Dead, which takes place a little in the future, the new spinoff focuses on the first generation to come of age in the zombie apocalypse. Having lived most of their lives safely behind walls, they’re not ready for what the world has become, how it’s changed, and how to deal with the undead.

The new series will run for 10 episodes, and stars Aliyah Royale as Iris, Annet Mahendru as Huck, Alexa Mansour as Hope, Nicolas Cantu as Elton, Hal Cumpston as Silas, and Nico Tortorella and Felix. It also won’t stay inside the aforementioned walled city. Part of the show will be exploring what’s happening in other areas of the universe, while the previous shows have focused on the Virginia/Georgia area and the Southwest, respectively. At New York Comic Con, Gimple noted that there’s a lot happening in the world that we don’t yet know about.

And in fact, it seems like the spinoff will tie into one of the biggest ongoing mysteries in the franchise: the helicopter people. This mysterious group took Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) back on The Walking Dead, and mixed it up with Althea (Maggie Grace) on Fear The Walking Dead. Each time, we glimpsed a symbol with three circles on their helicopters. According to Gimple, those three circles represent three communities that are “bound” together, and the spinoff focuses on one of those communities in the midwest.

Negrete noted that he was inspired by coming of age stories like Stand By Me, where teenagers can get their heart torn out — but in the world of The Walking Dead, you literally can have your heart torn out. In the show, the kids head out beyond their walls and encounter the undead for the first time, leading to teen angst, but also death and violence. Also, based on the footage shown, it seems funny, too: a scene where a teen barfs on a walker is right out of Stand By Me.

The spinoff will debut Spring, 2020 on AMC. You can watch the trailer above.

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