You have to hand it to The Walking Dead franchise.
If it wasn’t bad enough having the dead walking around you and wanting to chow down you at every opportunity, now survivors have to contend with an irradiated wasteland (Fear the Walking Dead) or being stuck between a destroyed home and an authoritarian “idyll” which fashions itself as the last great hope of civilised humanity (World Beyond).
That is precisely what we have going into Fear the Walking Dead (returns with the seventh season on 7 October) and The Walking Dead: World Beyond (the limited run series returns with second and final season on 3 October) which put their respective sets of beleaguered survivors through even more of a mill that has already been the case.
Via presentations through the Comic-Con@Home virtual event, we were given peeks into what life is like when zombies are the least of your considerable problems, and it is, of course, suitably terrifying.
FEAR THE WALKING DEAD
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In the first clip, which you can watch above, it’s seen just how dire the situation is. Morgan (Lennie James) and Grace (Karen David) have hunkered down inside a nuclear submarine with baby Morgan, only going outside–in full hazmat attire–when necessary. In the clip, Grace goes on a search for food for the baby, showing the audience just how devastated the landscape is and what a nuked zombie looks like.The second clip finds June (Jenna Elfman) and John Dorie Sr. (Keith Carradine) surviving in the bunker built by Teddy (John Glover)–the man who detonated the nuclear warheads. After an unknown amount of time living there, the two find a hidden room in the bunker caked in blood. John deduces that it’s the room where Teddy carried out his serial killings before the apocalypse. While Teddy is dead now, the memory of his actions and John’s own inability to arrest him for them, still weighs on Dorie. (synopsis (c) Games Radar)
THE WALKING DEAD: WORLD BEYOND
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The Walking Dead: World Beyond (TWD: World Beyond) delves into a new mythology and story that follows the first generation raised in a surviving civilization of the post-apocalyptic world. Two sisters along with two friends leave a place of safety and comfort to brave dangers, known and unknown, living and undead on an important quest. Pursued by those who wish to protect them and those who wish to harm them, a tale of growing up and transformation unfurls across dangerous terrain, challenging everything they know about the world, themselves, and each other. Some will become heroes. Some will become villains. But all of them will find the truths they seek.Created by Scott M. Gimple and Matt Negrete, TWD: World Beyond stars Alexa Mansour as Hope, Nicolas Cantu as Elton, Hal Cumpston as Silas, Aliyah Royale as Iris, Annet Mahendru as Huck, Nico Tortorella as Felix, and Julia Ormond as Elizabeth. Recurring during the first season were Joe Holt as Leo, Natalie Gold as Lyla, Al Calderon as Barca, Scott Adsit as Tony, and Ted Sutherland as Percy. Robert Palmer Watkins (General Hospital) joins the cast as Lt. Frank Newton, introduced during the first season and taking on an expanded role during the second season. Max Osinski (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Shameless) is set to recur in the role of Dennis, a once dedicated and disciplined soldier who is now trying to pick up the pieces of his life. Gissette Valentin (Cobra Kai, The Tomorrow War) has been cast in a recurring role of Corporal Diane Pierce, a smart, driven soldier who commands the respect of someone in a much higher position of authority. (synopsis via Bleeding Cool)