Fear The Walking Dead showrunner - 'Zombies can't swim, but they do wade'

by Daniel Falconer | 21 March 2016

With the cast of Fear The Walking Dead now at sea ahead of the second season of the AMC series, showrunner Dave Erikson has shared some eye-opening details about the episodes ahead at PaleyFest 2016.

Credit: AMC

According to Deadline, he explained: "Zombies can't swim. They can wade... We've figured out the best ways to shoot water zombies. They don't drown. They keep floating back up."

He continues: "What people find out fairly quickly is that we weren't the only people who had the bright idea to leave land. There is going to be threats and obstacles and conflict on sea and on land."

At the event, two exclusive clips from the show were screened, and in one Nick Clark (Frank Dilane) was shown underwater, about to be attacked by a zombie floating above him.

Also at PaleyFest, actress Alycia Debnam-Carey spoke about how her character Alicia will face some difficulties: "She's struggling to find a connection in this very confined space on the boat and she starts looking elsewhere for it."

Kim Dickens also said her character Madison will be making a few "uncomfortable alliances" whilst she remains on the boat, despite having "good instincts to not trust these new characters".

Asked once again about the possibility of the group having a run-in with the familiar faces we see on The Walking Dead, Erikson was straight forward in his answer: "No. That's the one straight answer I can give you," before explaining that "finding a way to intersect them would be difficult."

Also speaking about the comparison between the two shows, he said: "What they accomplish on The Walking Dead in many respects is harder because of the anticipation. What Scott [Gimple] and Robert [Kirkman] and the writers on that show have done is that they've figured out a way to remix just enough so the story still has twists and turns. It serves the comic but also brings some fresh qualities to the show. As long as we don't make up new zombie rules we can pretty much do whatever we want."

Executive Producer Gale Ann Hurd added: "We can't go back to the same kind of scenes and the same kind of events that happened in The Walking Dead... You have to be pretty damn inventive to not go where that show has gone or the comic book has gone."

Fear The Walking Dead season 2 premieres April 10 on AMC in the US, before coming to AMC in the UK on April 11 in a simulcast, exclusive to BT at 2am. It'll then be repeated at 9pm and continue in this slot throughout the series.