Ahead of their upcoming SDCC panel, AMC is ramping up the excitement for their highly anticipated upcoming anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead. On July 14 brand-new poster art was unveiled highlighting a portion of the all-star cast, along with a teaser trailer just over 30 seconds that gives fans a taste of the grab-bag of tones the stand-alone episodes will feature. The all-new anthology series is a spinoff of The Walking Dead Universe and will premiere on Sunday, August 14 on AMC and AMC+.
Something that’s becoming more common with established “universes,” like The Boys and, of course, the MCU and DCEU, are that these expansive worlds lend writers the ability to essentially create fanfiction, or spinoffs, that branch from the original source. With AMC‘s Tales of the Walking Dead, developed by writer Scott Gimple, the six hour-long episodes have opened up more of The Walking Dead Universe to explore individual stories across the post-apocalyptic world. In the recently released teaser trailer, the sound of a clock rapidly ticking away the minutes plays ominously behind snippets of scenes from Tales. In the first few seconds, Parker Posey, who plays Blair in the show’s pilot episode, asks fans and Gina (Jillian Bell), “Do you want to try something new?”
No specific details have been disclosed about any of the episodes, and right off the bat Posey and Bell look wildly out of place for a post-walker world. Dressed to the nines, the two are casually having a conversation in what looks to be an office setting. Abruptly, the tone shifts to something more horrific as Samantha Morton‘s character Alpha, who fans will recognize from the original AMC hit show, can be heard saying, “Time to show you how to survive,” and we see Daniella Pineda turning to face a spectral walker coming towards her. The teaser gives fans a great look at each of the new characters, with Terry Crews cradling a baby goat, losing his grip on reality as he laughingly ponders, “What is happening?”
Each episode has its own writer, possibly all different directors, and maybe its own central theme. A few times the trailer shows what appears to be a company called Circle of Trust in Posey and Bell‘s episode, and it seems safe to assume fans will be getting Alpha’s origin story from the point of infection as she teaches someone who appears to be a younger version of her daughter Lydia survivalist techniques. In a succession of quick shots, the teaser shows The Boys‘ Jessie T. Usher bespectacled and holding up a lantern, Hack‘s Poppy Liu with a makeshift weapon in a dire situation, and a comedic exchange between Crews and Olivia Munn.
Tales of the Walking Dead enlists a number of writers from Ahmadu Garba who worked on the Hulu true-crime series The Girl from Plainville, Lindsey Villarreal who wrote for Netflix‘s newest Resident Evil series, to original series The Walking Dead episode writer Channing Powell. Other notable cast members include Embeth Davidtz, Danny Ramirez, Loan Chabanol, Anthony Edwards, and Matt Medrano.
Tales of the Walking Dead will premiere on August 14 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. The first two episodes will be streaming on AMC+, and beginning August 21 all subsequent episodes will stream a week early on the AMC streamer. Check out the poster and teaser:
via Collider