Fear The Walking Dead

Fear The Walking Dead is an American horror television drama companion series of AMC's original The Walking Dead series. The executive producers are Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert.

The first season will premiere on August 23, 2015 on AMC and will consist of six episodes. On July 31, 2015, AMC renewed the show and ordered fifteen episodes for a second season, scheduled to premiere in 2016.

Synopsis
Living in the same universe as The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead is a gritty drama that explores the onset of the undead apocalypse through the lens of a fractured family. Set in a city where people come to escape, shield secrets, and bury their pasts, a mysterious outbreak threatens to disrupt what little stability high school guidance counselor Madison Clark and English teacher Travis Manawa have managed to assemble. The everyday pressure of blending two families while dealing with resentful, escapist, and strung out children takes a back seat when society begins to break down. A forced evolution, a necessary survival of the fittest takes hold, and our dysfunctional family must either reinvent themselves or embrace their darker histories.”

Development
On March 9, 2015, AMC announced the series had been picked up for two seasons. The first stages of production began on May 11, 2015 in Vancouver.

Initial Casting Call
This is a cast list based on the original and subsequent casting calls for the pilot. TWD casting calls have used temporary names in the past so, at the very least, it should be regarded as subject to change.
 * Sean Cabrera. A Latino male in his early 40s, Sean is a good man, a teacher, 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. "The female lead" . A thirty-something 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 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, she has dreams of leaving L.A. for Berkeley when the apocalypse strikes.
 * Matt Sale. Ashley's "Jock boyfriend"
 * Andrea Chapman. A somewhat wilted flower child, forty-something Andrea who has retreated to the outskirts of the city to recover after a horrible marriage.
 * Art: The principal at the school where both Sean and Nancy work, who has concerns about the bizarre outbreak featured on the local news.
 * Tobias: A wise-beyond-his-years senior at the school who believes the outbreak is Doomsday.
 * Casper: Nick's drug-dealing best friend.

Cast List
This is a list of the main characters in the series, in order of living status.

Trivia

 * Robert Kirkman remarked that the series is "technically not a spin-off," because it doesn't have any characters in common with the original series.
 * The companion series will be a prequel to the television series, taking place during the start of the zombie apocalypse and showing attempts to control it. The origins of it will be explored in the series. The article also claims that an early script for the Pilot "features one character who briefly appeared during a key season one episode."
 * The series will be set in Los Angeles, California. However, only the first episode was filmed on location. The remaining will be filmed in Vancouver, Canada.
 * As opposed to using the 16mm cameras used in the original series, Fear the Walking Dead will be shot digitally.

Casting Call Dec 2014
For shooting in Los Angeles between Jan 19 and Feb 3 2015, the call was for "principal actor speaking roles"

The call was for the following roles:
 * [Male, 40-55] Any ethnicity, he is the law enforcer of an inner city school
 * [Male, over 18 to portray 17-18] Any ethnicity, intelligent, cool, handsome and very artistic
 * [Male, over 18 to portray 17-18] Any ethnicity, very smart but makes a bad decision in school
 * [Female, 30-49] Any ethnicity, to portray a high school science teacher
 * [Female, 25-50] Any ethnicity, to play a nurse, good sense of humour but can play "horrified"
 * [Female, 18 to play younger] Any ethnicity, high school student with a tattoo
 * [Male, 18] Any ethnicity, very charismatic, he is a master manipulator
 * [Male or Female] Age and race open, to play an emergency room physician
 * [Male or Female] Age and race open, to play an LAPD cop
 * [Male, 35-40] Caucasian, is at an accident scene and calls 911 on his mobile
 * [Male 40-50] Race open, skinny, frightened, on some type of illicit drugs
 * [Male 20-39] Race open, to play a hospital orderly