Is The Walking Dead Spinoff going to be a prequel?

So it seems The Walking Dead Spinoff is happening and some new information has been released about the upcoming show: the Waking Dead “companion series” might be a prequel.

As TV Line reports, AMC has “promised” that its new series will “shed light on a new, previously unseen corner of the zombie apocalypse — perhaps one where the living outnumber the undead.” According to an unnamed source:

There’s increasing buzz that the offshoot will be a prequel of sorts, one that would chronicle the early days of the epidemic and the effort to contain it.

It sounds like a good idea, since the early days of the chaos is still an untapped area. The first episode of the original series kept viewers in the dark about how the zombies took over; so it would be interesting to watch the collapse of civilization. We will probably see new characters fighting humanity’s fatal battle. However, if the spin-off is indeed a prequel, it might give a chance for creators to bring back dead characters and recast popular stars of the original show, too.

IronE Singleton said:

I’m hoping to be in the spinoff. How cool would that be to be a part of that show? Anything that happens, I’m maintaining a really great relationship with everybody attached to the show. [Walking Dead creator] Robert Kirkman and Brian Huntington, those guys over at Skybound, I post on their website very Friday to let people know what’s going on… And then, over at AMC, Charlie Collier, president over there, we have a really good relationship. So it could happen. I could pop up anywhere. I’m looking forward to the future.

The spin-off is scheduled for 2015. This will give plenty of time for the creators to make up their minds about the details of the new story, and for us to speculate on who we might see fighting the undead again.