‘The Walking Dead’ companion series gets pilot order at AMC

More zombies are slowly shambling their way toward your TV screen. On Friday, AMC announced it had ordered a pilot for its still-untitled companion series to “The Walking Dead.�

The pilot will begin production late this year and was co-created by “Walking Dead� mastermind Robert Kirkman and “Sons of Anarchy� writer Dave Erickson.

AMC has said the companion show would take place in a new location with a completely new cast of characters, but beyond that little is known. Is it a depiction of the early days of the zombie plague? A series that takes place at the same time as “The Walking Dead� in another state? Something far in the future? Fans have been speculating wildly.

In a statement, AMC President Charlie Collier said that besides getting requests to have a zombie cameo, he’s most frequently asked about what’s happening with the zombie apocalypse in other parts of the world. Now we will know.

While a pilot order is not a guarantee that AMC will actually put the series on the air, it is an expansion of the most successful series on the channel, so it’s got millions of fans already before a single scene has been shot.

Ratings for the 4-year-old “Walking Dead� continue to rise. The fourth-season finale averaged 15.7 million viewers, which was just shy of the series’ all-time record set by the fourth-season premiere at 16.1 million viewers.

The fifth season is set to debut on Oct. 12.

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