The Walking Dead Companion Series

AMC and Robert Kirkman's companion series to The Walking Dead is getting ready to start filming in California, but what do we know about the upcoming series?  Here are a few things that I've learned from the web:

First, it'll actually be set in California.  It was originally rumored to be taking place in Pennsylvania, but now things seem to be moving, both for the story and it's location, to California.  The film company could still move the set to Pennsylvania to avoid the high taxes that go along with filming in California, but for now it'll be based in the Golden State.

Second, the cast is going to be more ethnically diverse and feature older "teenagers" within the group.  The former is to try and give viewers more people that they can relate to, while the latter is presumably to avoid the child labor laws that came with filming the original series when they hired Chandler Riggs to play Carl Grimes.  Either way, both of these moves were deliberate to try and expand their audience.

Third, it's going to be set near the beginning of the outbreak.  It's going to show how people were trying to contain the epidemic before it got out of control.

Fourth, we've learned who some of the actors are that will be featured in this series.  The list is as follows:

Cliff Curtis - Male Lead
Kim Dickens - Female Lead
Frank Dillane - Teenager
Alycia Debnam Carey - Teenager

Finally, we learn that this series will not be tied to any storylines from the comic books.  This is an entirely new script that will be unique to itself.  This will allow the creators to try new things and to explore different avenues, without being tied down to following specific canon.

The new The Walking Dead companion series will be airing in the off season of the original show, to give viewers more zombies year round.  Both shows will air on AMC.