With a show as popular as The Walking Dead, a spin-off was almost guaranteed. In fact, one could consider Telltale Game's The Walking Dead video games as somewhat of a spin-off in their own right, and that worked out fantastically for everyone involved. AMC has seen a massive amount of success with the television series, and it looks like the network is trying to catch lighting in a bottle again.
While details on The Walking Dead's upcoming spin-off have been few and far between - the show doesn't even have a proper title yet - a few shreds of information have popped up. Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam-Carey were the first names dropped, and both will play major recurring roles in the series. That being said, neither of them are playing the lead role, which, before today, was still unannounced.
The lead role, according to Entertainment Weekly, has gone to actor Cliff Curtis. The actor will be playing a male lead role as a father 'trying to do the right thing' (whatever that means). Curtis has been a part of many films and TV shows in the past, but The Walking Dead spin-off will be his first leading role.
There's still a lot of work left do finish on The Walking Dead's spin-off pilot: first and foremost, the crew has stated that they're still testing for a female lead, and from what's been revealed, much of the plot is still up in the air. The spin-off doesn't have a proposed launch date, either - there's a good possibility that the show is still a few years away from airing.
Even so, there's a lot of potential for stories set in The Walking Dead universe. The series has always focused on the characters adjusting to live in an undead world, which is why The Walking Dead stands above so many other, similar stories - fans just have to hope that the spin-off won't be going over too much familiar territory.
With no release date or production schedule set, it's hard to predict when The Walking Dead spin-off could air, but it's probably best not expect anything before the end of 2015.
