Robert Kirkman: The Walking Dead Companion Series Has Nothing To Do With the Comics

During his "Creative Activism" panel at the South by Southwest today, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman made one of the first official comments about the forthcoming companion series set to launch in the summer.

Joking that they're going to call the as-yet-untitled show The Walking Dead: CSI: Miami, Kirkman said that there might be "narrative connective tissue" between the spinoff and the original AMC hit but denied that the characters and stories would play into existing tales from comics and The Walking Dead on AMC, says EW.

"It's not going to relate to the comics at all," Kirkman said. "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 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."

"One thing that we're doing with the new show that we're trying with everything is it's not derivative," Kirkman added. "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."

"And then we're going to cross it over for an Avengers movie and it will be great," he joked.