‘Z Nation’ Prequel ‘Black Summer’ Gets First Trailer

All kinds of zombie stories have made their way onto television in recent years, from AMC’s The Walking Dead franchise to less-apocalyptic fare like iZombie and Santa Clarita Diet. Now, it looks like Netflix is adding to the genre in an interesting way.

The streaming platform recently released the first trailer for Black Summer, a series that will serve as a prequel to SYFY’s Z Nation. The trailer gives some context to the mysterious series, which star Jaime King.

Set during the breakdown of society after a virulent zombie virus outbreak, the new series stars King as Rose, a young mother trying to find her daughter. To succeed in her quest, Rose must ally herself with other refugees, who must all make tough decisions in a world no longer governed by civilized rules.

Black Summer is created and showrun by Karl Schaefer and John Hyams, both of whom previously co-created Z Nation alongside Craig Engler.

The arrival of Black Summer probably comes with some bittersweet feelings for Z Nation fans, seeing as the flagship series was cancelled after five seasons last December. At the time, fans had called on Netflix to “save” the series, something that has not yet come to fruition. But even then, the series is looking to have a similar sort of relationship to Z Nation that Fear the Walking Dead initially had to The Walking Dead.

“Really, the only similarity between Z Nation and Black Summer is that the Black Summer is the first summer that Z Nation took place in.” Z Nation producer Jodi Binstock said in a previous interview. “Z Nation, when it begins, is in year four of the zombie apocalypse. Black Summer is three months in; this is the first outbreak, this is when all the sh*t’s hitting the fan. It’s not tongue-in-cheek at all. It is as realistic as any television I’ve ever seen.”

What do you think of the first trailer for Black Summer? Will you be adding the series to your watchlist? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Black Summer will debut on Netflix on Thursday, April 11th.