Since AMC’s The Walking Dead is currently the highest rated drama series on all of television in the coveted 18-49 demo, it was only a matter of time before AMC expanded the brand.  The network announced plans for a Walking Dead spin-off last year, and officially ordered a pilot for the potential series earlier this month.  With the wheels in motion to finally move forward on this new corner of the Walking Dead universe, character descriptions for the pilot episode have landed online that give us a few hints as to what we may expect from the Walking Dead companion series.  We previously heard that the new show might be a prequel of sorts, focusing on the early efforts to combat the zombie infection in its infancy, and these character descriptions appear to corroborate that information.

Hit the jump to read the Walking Dead spin-off character descriptions, which seem to have a heavy focus on family.

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The folks over at TV Line got their hands on these descriptions of the main characters that will appear in the pilot, and they are as follows:

  • Sean Cabrera – A Latino male in his early 40s, Sean is a good man trying to do right by everyone in his life.
  • Cody Cabrera – Sean’s whip-smart and rebellious teenage son.  Known as the angriest kid in town.
  • Nancy Tompkins – A thirtysomething single mom to two kids, Nancy looks like the girl next door, but there’s an edge to her.
  • Nick Tompkins – Nancy’s screwed up teenage son.  He’s too old to stay at home, too scared to flee.
  • Ashley Tompkins – Nancy’s mostly level-headed teenage daughter.  Her ambition is in direct proportion to her older brother’s failures.  She loves her mom but it’s time to get out of Dodge.
  • Andrea Chapman – A somewhat wilted flower child, fortysomething Andrea—yep, another Andrea!—has retreated to the outskirts of the city to recover after a horrible marriage. 

There are two big things that are striking about these descriptions.  One, there appears to be a heavy focus on familial relationships in this Walking Dead spin-off pilot, and two, the descriptions hint heavily that the story takes place in a pre-apocalyptic Walking Dead world.  In the original series, we skipped over all of the initial panic and reaction that occurred when the infection started to spread, but it appears that AMC is keen on mining that territory in this companion series.  Moreover, as opposed to focusing on a group of lost souls like in The Walking Dead, the principal cast of this new show is made up primarily of two families.

The Walking Dead comic book creator and original series executive producer Robert Kirkman acts as an executive producer on this new series alongside Gale Anne Hurd, with Dave Erickson (Sons of Anarchy, Low Winter Sun) acting as the showrunner.  Erickson and Kirkman penned the pilot, and if AMC likes what they see, we could possibly see the show premiere sometime in 2015.

What do you think about these character descriptions, readers?  Are you interested in seeing the Walking Dead universe from a different point of view and time period?  What changes would you like to see in the companion series from the original series?  Sound off in the comments below.

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The Walking Dead Spin-Off Character Descriptions