Walking Dead Companion Series is a Prequel

There’s been a lot of speculation surrounding the upcoming “Walking Dead” companion series.  In fact, no one can even definitely say if this is a companion series or a spin-off.  Is there an actual difference? Probably not, but lets at least come to an agreement on the terminology before we start worrying about the premise of this thing.

Entertainment Weekly recently spoke with Robert Kirkman about the upcoming series and he finally opened up a bit about when the series will take place and how it’ll fit into the overall “Walking Dead” universe. Here’s what the series creator had to say:

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. 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.

So the long-standing rumors about this series being a prequel are mostly true.  How long it’ll remain a prequel, though, remains to be seen.  Kirkman leaves that open to interpretation as I imagine that if they keep ginning up good stories to tell in the past they can keep putting off the the present day.  And since it seems that the world turned to utter shit over the course of 100 days (if you believe Jenner from the CDC), there are probably plenty of good tales to show the decline of humanity within that timeline.