Fear The Walking Dead: Exec. Producer On Season 2, Walkers At Sea, And Negan
The Walking Dead world is in full-flow.
Fear The Walking Dead is back. The wait is almost over for Season 2 of The Walking Dead's companion show to make a return, and this year promises to be a huge one for the fledgling series. The debut season watched the fall of L.A. but now the group have left dry land in search of survival.
What Culture caught up with Executive Producer David Alpert for a look atFear's second season, discussing the challenges of filming an apocalypse in the ocean, plusa exclusivemessage for fans about the upcoming Season 6 finale of The Walking Dead...
WC: How pleased were you withhow Season 1 turned out?
DA: I loved what we were able to pull off on Fear The Walking Dead. The challenge was incredibly difficult trying to figure out a companion series thats not based on a comic book. How do we create characters we care about from scratch?It was an incredibly difficult challenge but I think the work that Robert Kirkman and Dave Erikson did on creating the world was really fantastic. They brought something special to the table. I was incredibly pleased and happily surprised.
WC: Was the idea of a 15-part season a daunting prospect or a relief?
DA: Trying to fit Season 1 into six episodes was really tough. We had a much longer story than we originally wanted to tell, so trying to make a beginning, middle and end in six episodes was really tough. Were actually really excited about 15 episodes because we get to tell a lot of stories we havent been able to so far.
WC: How deep into the apocalypse will Season 2 take us?
DA: Season 2 picks up right where Season 1 left off, then over the course of the season - were not measuring as much in days, months, hours - were going to get pretty far down the road. Were certainly not going to get to where we are in Season 6 of The Walking Dead. Were still in that early disintegration phase.There are still remnants and pockets of the old society and people who are trying to keep the old ways going, so not everybody has accepted the fall of society, but were going to move closer and closer to a period we like to call the wasteland.
WC: How challenging was it to work in the ocean environment? And what will that location add to the show?
DA: Shooting on water. Oh man, it sounds great on paper but it was incredibly difficult. Thankfully we have an amazing crew and an amazing team. Im not gonna lie we had some tough moments, theres a reason why everyone says shooting on water is difficult, but I also think theres a reason why some of the best movies of all time are set on water.From Jaws to Titanic, theres something amazing about the feeling and the mood and the inspiration that comes from being out on the open seas. This season has been really great for us to have that cinematic scope to really push it in a different direction. Im not desperate to go back out to the water right now, but from a creative perspective, what we were able to get from it was gold.
Continued on the next page.