Fear The Walking Dead Comic Con Panel Recap

Following The Walking Dead's Hall H panel, it's companion series Fear The Walking Dead took [...]

By Brandon Davis

Following The Walking Dead's Hall H panel, it's companion series Fear The Walking Dead took place.

Chris Hardwick hosted the panel and began by letting Dave Erickson describe the show a little bit before asking questions to the cast and producers.

Erickson: There's a great sense of tension and apprehension. The audience comes to it knowing what we have in store. It's the process of watching characters… They don't go to a place assuming these people are the undead. They think they're sick or they're on something. We get to look at that time Rick was in his coma. We get to look a=t what happened during those four weeks…How did people adjust to that?... We don't get to full apocalypse until later in the season…It starts as family drama and we get to the apocalypse through that…

Timeline wise, where does this fit in to The Walking Dead universe?

Erickson: It's loosely during Rick's coma. I think Robert's feeling was Rick was out for four or five weeks… We're not necessarily there…We wouldn't end our finale and cut to Rick coming to.

The trailer played, and Chris Hardwick continues with questions.

Cliff, what can you say about Travis? What's his relationship to Madison?

I love Travis. He's an optimist. He's a fixer, he likes to fix things...He's a high school teacher, an English teacher.

Were you emotionally prepared for what the show would be?

I like to take my roles one day at a time...When I read the script, I really liked the people. I liked the humanity of the characters. What's great is they're completely unprepared...I think the set up is really strong.

Frank, what can you tell us about Nick?

He's a son, a brother... I don't know that much. We've only shot the first episode, so I don't know too much.

Erickson: Frank's character, Nick, he is the eldest teenage son of Madison...What's interesting about all the characters, I think Nick in particular, is it's what worked in the old world and what didn't work in the old world...that's what's intriguing to me. Nick is one of the first ones who gets a sense of what's going on.

[Greg Nicotero highlighted the fact that it's great to watch these characters change. Saying it is fun to watch Travis change into a leader in this world without the skills we know Rick to have from being a cop or a Katana like Michonne]

[Gale Anne Hurd analyzed our culture's habit of looking at diseases on the news and thinking someone will fix it, but Fear The Walking Dead shows what happens when no one fixes it, saying, "There is no fixing it."]

What will the zombies look like iin this show?

Nicotero: This is something that, you look at the person next you and you're thinking they don't look well, your instinct isn't, "Oh, I should shoot that person in the head!"...It's not the decomposition we see in The Walking Dead because they haven't been walking around for a year and a half, two years...

What is Alicia like?

Carey: She's a high achiever, she's great at school...She's got a lot of ambition. I think that's because she's in a broken family household...She's had to become very independent and self-sufficient...She has so much and she's got somewhere she really wants to go...

Compared to Carl, you're not kids, but you're not fully grown adults, yet. What's that like in this world?

Carey: Totally....It's a really amazing dynaic to explore because at the end of the day, she is still a 17-year-old girl...The world is falling apart and she's having a moment over something trivial...

Who do you think is better in this world?

Carey: That's a good question.

I've done this before.

Carey: I think you've got two ways to go as a teenager...It will govern you. It will change who you are. I think that's going to be a really interesting thing to discover with these characters, especially. She's going to go somewhere, it might be very dark.

Elizabeth Rodriguez, what can you tell us about Liza?

Rodriguez: I can tell you that she is Travis's ex-wife and the mother of Chris, played by Lorenzo. They were married about 12 years.

Curtis: 13 years.

Rodriguez: Sorry, I forget these things. We've been divorced for three - separated for three - ...She is going to nursing school which plays a very important role in the outbreak...She sort of, doesn't take any BS, I think she's really nurturing and kind of comes into this world...My character wasn't supposed to be Latina. That's really important...I'm just playing a woman.

Lorenzo, how old is Chris?

Rodriguez: Sixteen. And a mute.

How long did you have to get to know each other before filming?

Henrie: I met everyone on the table read...we all bonded...

If this show works out, you're going to be family. Having watched what happened with Walking Dead and seeing how close they became to each other, are you ready for a very wonderful and intense lot of responsbility?

Henrie: I couldn't be more grateful to have such an amazing cast...Everyone is like family. It's been such an amazing experience.

Rodriguez: I like to walk around New York City and this is gonna get in the way of my freedom.

Ruben, How did you get involved with the show?

Blades: I always say that the first motivation as actor to work in unemployment. This role - I felt good about accepting it. It's a very complex character. Manuel Salazar is a very complex character. That and I really like science fiction were the two factors. He's a barber who came from a different environment and different society to start a life...Events occur that force him to revisit a past that he was trying to get away from...

Mercedes, I don't think it's been announced your

I play Daniel's daughter. Born and raised in the states to immigrant parents...Ofelia is quite protective of her parents...When the proverbial s--- hits the fan, Ofelia thinks she knows a lot...she can rely on her parents far more than she thought...She has to realize like everyone else what she's capable of...

QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE

Was it easy to transition into your characters? Do yourselves in the characters?

Dickens: I don't know.

Erickson: There is no resemblence between you and Madison whatsoever.

Rodriguez: My character is a lot like me, I think. I'm nurturing... I don't take BS... Until I was doing nursing stuff, I was like, "ahh!"

How is the show different from Orange is the New Black?

Rodriguez: In prison we have rules and we know who the bad guys are...We know when we're getting out...In this world, there are no rules...The producers of Orange are huge fans of The Walking Dead and they were so glad I'm a part of this.

Would the cast of Fear meet the cast of The Walking Dead?

Curtis: I'm campaigning to meet Rick...I want some tips.

Erickson: There are no plans right now to conflict the two stories...It would be geographically quite complicated...

Will the cast of Fear meet the cast of Doctor Who?

Erickson: Yes.

Does the students showing you footage on the phone help you accept what's going on?

Dickens: I think with the character, Tobias... He's a special kid and he becomes, for me, somebody I listen to...He has a certain understanding of that world.

Nicotero: I think there's an interesting moment where your character says, "Don't believe what's going on on the internet, if something was happening the authorities would be there to help us."

Hurd: Do you really think the authorities would be there to help us?

Will there be any LA trademarks that will be overrun like the Staples Center?

Erickson: The Staples Center is not going down, at least not yet.

Will we get female bad assery from the beginning?

Erickson: There's definitely some female bad-assery early on...We turn things on it's head right out of the gate...

How will class and political structure affect the show?

Erickson: The show for us is anchored in East LA...Part of the benefit of the sprawl of the city is what's happening in Burbank is no necessarily happening in Brentwood...We end up going back to our space, our neighborhood, our house...That's part of the tension of the show when we don't know what's going on outside of our community....The expectation is the authorities will come and will protect us...That's something we play with this season.

Hurd: There's this expectation that if you have money you can buy your way out of the apocalypse and we'll be playing with that this season.

Chris Hardwick, will we see you guest star as a survivor or zombie in either show?

Hardwick: Nicotero, the first couple seasons, said come down to Atlanta, we'll make you a walker! I went through the process for Talking Dead it's intense!...As a fan of the show, I took myself out of the pool. If you see me, it takes you out of the show...I would do it if you wanted me to do it. The bigest thing for me is if someone doesn't like Talking Dead, they say "You're ruining Walking Dead!" and first of all, it's avoidable, but I love the show and I love the universe so much that I never want to get in the way...

Ruben, which do you think you would survive better, Predator or zombies?

Blades: I would say the zombies. Predator, it's hard locate...

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