When it comes to TV spin-offs, there’s usually a lot of politely (read: profitably) shared ground between an original and whatever small screen property develops from it at the outset, but that’s not been the case with Fear the Walking Dead and its predecessor in undead interest, The Walking Dead. The AMC prequel series ditched the woodsy southeast altogether, hopped over to coastal California, and journeyed back in time to when people first began turning into walkers, long before the Ricktatorship began.

Unlike the network’s other major prequel series Better Call Saul (born of the iconic Breaking Bad) there’s little to no story synchronization with Fear the Walking Dead’s parent show so far. Not only are the main faces completely unrelated to Rick Grimes and co. (at least, that we know of), but even the biters tend to look fresher this early on in the apocalyptic game. If you’ve been holding out hope that eventually the timelines are going to intersect and we’re going to start having some Arrow-meets-The Flash style crossover action coming along on Sunday nights, we’ve got some bad news.

Dave Erickson, executive producer on Fear the Walking Dead, told TV Line that while it might be fun to imagine Carol foisting some of her hard truth serum on the kiddos when they act out, it’s not going to happen anytime soon – possibly ever.

Erickson said that in order to mesh the two series together somehow it would require “some tectonic plates [to] shift,” since Fear TWD’s arcs are not based upon the events of Robert Kirkman’s comic book series, except in idea. Plus, while The Walking Dead hasn’t exactly been faithful to the letter (or illustration, as the case may be) of its literary source material, he believes there’s no room for exploring the Fear narrative within that scope.

Of course, there are practical considerations at play, too, like the fact that Fear TWD is based out of California, while the original walker-killing squad’s still holding it down in Alexandria, Virginia. “From a geographical standpoint, it’s going to be very difficult for us to ever get to the East Coast,” Erickson said. (To be fair, he’s probably right about that, since it has taken our Georgian friends a long time to cross two states.)

Logistically, they’d also have to time-hop ahead who knows how long to catch up (unless, say, Rosita originated in California before linking up with Eugene and Abraham). But the biggest hang-up with crossing over with TWD somehow is that it would make Fear even more beholden to the other program. Erickson expanded on that point:

He’s right; that’ll never happen so long as they’re both running, and especially not while the original show’s title is still actually right there in the new one’s in full. But, given the differences between the two series, there is plenty of compelling ground to cover in order to entertain fans of the Walking Dead universe. 

“My hope is that at a certain point – and it’ll probably never happen – but if we stay on the air long enough, people will stop comparing the shows so much. I don’t think that’ll ever go away, but they are two separate stories with similar rules taking place in the same universe … but are different in terms of characters and locations.”

Fear the Walking Dead season 2 will resume with eight new episodes in August 2016 on AMC. Season 7 of The Walking Dead is expected to premiere October 9th, 2016.

Source: TV Line