If you haven't been living under a rock for the last 7 years, chances are you have either heard of or watched AMC's hit television show The Walking Dead. The show has been known to be one of the most beloved television franchises of this generation. People have placed it among the ranks of Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. I too am an avid fan of the show. It takes the pop culture ideas of two American horror stories, zombies and the apocalypse, and uses them to tell amazing stories about human nature and survival. However, you probably have not heard of the sister series of the show, Fear the Walking Dead. Fear the Walking Dead is a spin-off prequel to The Walking Dead. It's relationship to the show is similar to how Better Call Saul is the prequel spin-off to Breaking Bad another AMC original show. However, unlike the former, FTWD and TWD coexist. As of right now, TWD has still not finished, and executive producers don't plan on finishing the show anytime soon. What makes this incredible is that all year around, there is always some form of Walking Dead media to be consumed.
So then what is the difference between the shows? Well as stated before, FTWD is a prequel to the original series. The original series takes place 2 months after "The fall." It follows Rick Grimes a sheriff who went into a coma right before the fall and wakes up in a hospital. His goal is to find and protect his family and other fellow survivors for the dark new world that awaits them. "The fall" is what survivors refer to as the beginning of the apocalypse when the walkers (zombies) basically took over the world. FTWD takes place moments before the fall and, as of right now, they have just come to the day Rick has awoken from his coma.
So what is the difference between the shows? The answer lies in the title. During season 3 of TWD, Rick and his group have grown accustomed to the threat of walkers. The new moto the show had was "Fight the Dead. Fear the Living." As in any post-apocalyptic world, people are still going to be the worst enemy. While lots of internal conflicts happen in the show, there really isn't all out wars between the members of different groups. The largest problem the characters on the show have are the walkers. They are still not accustomed to living in a world that was consumed by the dead.
Another much more serious difference between the shows is the idea of "plot armor". TWD really can't kill off major characters like Rick or Carl Grimes mainly because they have been noted to by the show as the most important character to have. FTWD doesn't have that. None of the characters are really heroes so to speak and they just are trying to survive. There are no "bad-ass" characters or fan favorites just survivors who are equally liked by the community because they don't have the incredible skills the characters on TWD have.
Regardless of the differences, Robert Kirkman has confirmed that there will be a crossover between the two shows.
FTWD just had its 2 hour season 3 finale on Sunday. The Season 8 premiere of TWD is set for 9 on AMC next Sunday.
