Fear the Walking Dead: Kirkman pretty clear about no origin story, even to show runners

Fear the Walking Dead. Gloria. AMC /

Robert Kirkman has been very flexible about changing the source material, his comic books, when creating the television show, The Walking Dead. There are many differences. Character changes, additions, twists. Now with Fear the Walking Dead there is no source material, but it’s still connected to the source material and Kirkman is the Executive Producer. We are finding out that there are a few things that are very important to Kirkman.

There were certain things I pitched to Robert in the very beginning. That was my initial thinking. OK, we need a big swing. We need something that’s radically different. I pitched a version of Patient Zero. And Robert said, ‘eh, that’s not really what this show is.’

In an interview with

The Wrap

, showrunner Dave Erickson talked about how he had some ideas at first, similar to the natural inclinations of many fans. The desire to have the two shows connect at some point and the desire to have the start or cause of the outbreak explained somehow. Both ideas are not top priority for Kirkman and the origin story is one that Kirkman is seems pretty strongly against, even if his comment sounds indifferent. Erickson said he pitched it.

"“There were certain things I pitched to Robert in the very beginning. That was my initial thinking. OK, we need a big swing. We need something that’s radically different. I pitched a version of Patient Zero. And Robert said, ‘eh, that’s not really what this show is.”"

Erickson now sees Kirkman’s viewpoint. “People will wonder and there’s an instinct that everyone will want to know what the origin was … is there ever going to be a cure?”

Erickson also explained what’s important to Kirkman. “What’s interesting to him is the characters, how do you function when the social construct starts to disintegrate?”

Sounds like Erickson is getting to know Kirkman pretty well. Robert Kirkman said this to Marc Maron recently on his podcast: “To me it’s about finding water, it’s about building a fence–when you make it bigger, that’s when it gets less interesting to me.”

FTWD 101. Teachers. AMC /

As far as connecting the two shows, Erickson admits it would be fun, but it’s not top priority. “I just think there’s a lot of stories we can explore on our coast. They’re so deep into it. We have to play some catch-up because they’re six seasons in. I’m not looking at the first several seasons of the show, going ‘OK, where can we do a time jump so we can get close enough to them?’”

He also pondered the trickiness of the comics and Robert’s desire or perhaps lack of desire to write that Fear crossover into the comics. So it may happen, but the big wigs would have to do lots of careful thinking before it happens, if it does.

Find out everything we know about Fear so far! Fear starts here!

Next: Season 5:All Named Character Deaths

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