AMC's Walking Dead spinoff/prequel series, starring Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis, won't be a prequel the entire time, creator Robert Kirkman remarked at a "Creative Activism" panel at SXSW on Saturday.
As reported by , Kirkman stated that the new series is "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," Kirkman continued. "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.”
Kirkman also commented on the fact that the new series would be able to stand on its own, though since it will involve new characters experiencing walkers for the first time in all new settings it will also help illuminate little things about the original series. "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.”