Look I hear you: Shut up, Ross, get to it. And so I will. The trailer for “Tales of the Walking Dead” just dropped and you can watch it above now.
The trailer was rolled out during the show’s big Hall H panel Friday as part of San Diego Comic, hosted — as all “Walking Dead” panels are, by Chris Hardwick. On hand were chief content officer of ‘The Walking Dead’ Universe, Scott M. Gimple, showrunner and executive producer Channing Powell, director and EP Michael Satrazemis, and cast members Terry Crews, Samantha Morton and Danny Ramirez.
The trailer features elements from several of the show’s standalone stories that all paint a very stark picture of how the world fell — and honestly we’re reminded of a ton of the drama from the COVID-19 era, particularly the denialism, rugged individualist posturing, and the scapegoating.
For example, we see Parker Posey as an apparently well-to-do woman who straight up refuses to believe reports of a zombie apocalypse… of course, until it runs right up and bites her. Crews meanwhile plays a survivalist who lives an isolated, paranoid life, until he (for an as-yet unrevealed reason) ends up sheltering with Olivia Munn and gets called out. Will he change? We’ll have to find out.
Meanwhile, Jesse T. Usher plays a man caught up in the social panic at the start of the apocalypse who, it seems, is caught up in a terror that sure looks more like Jim crow than zombies — which are of course also doing damage.
We also see someone trying to, essentially, do his own research — whether or not he succeeds remains to be seen, but nevertheless he sure looks like he’s putting himself in mortal danger.
The show was inspired by “all the questions from fans of the shows — what is happening here, what is happening there? Can we see past characters,” Gimple explained. He also said “It tilts a little more towards the new.”
Crews said he “couldn’t be happier to be a part of this universe,” adding “I promise you, I promise you, you’re going to love what we’re putting down.” He later insisted “I am the biggest fan” of “The Walking Dead” universe and that “they had me at hello” when he got the call from his agent to join the series.
“It is truly a dream come true,” he said. “I put everything I have into this.”
He also explicitly said the COVID-19 pandemic made him feel a sense that “this could really happen,” which informed his performance on the show.
For her part, Morton described her experiences with “The Walking Dead” as “the role of a lifetime” and later told a fan during the audience Q&A that she’d jump at the chance to do a spinoff prequel series based on her character (Alpha). Obviously, here’s hoping AMC is listening.
And later, Crews specifically praised Morton’s performance as Alpha and joked that she freaked him out so much on the show that “I was afraid to meet her!”
Prior to the panel, Chris Hardwick spent a few minutes catching up with the crowd and celebrating the return of Comic-Con, and the birth of his ifant daughter. He also noted that so far he’s managed to dodge COVID, but coming to Comic-Con, “if I did get it, the most collectable COVID ever. ‘it’s not just COVID, SDCC limited edition,” he joked.
The six-episode anthology series features a rotating cast that includes “The Walking Dead” transplant Samantha Morton, plus Terry Crews, Parker Posey, Jillian Bell, and Olivia Munn. They’re joined by Danny Ramirez, Loan Chabanol (“Fading Gigolo”), Embeth Davidtz (“Old,” “Ray Donovan”) and Jessie T. Usher (“Shaft,” “The Boys”).
It premieres Sunday, Aug. 14 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC and AMC+ with its first two episodes streaming the same evening on AMC+. Additional episodes will roll out weekly starting Sunday, Aug. 21.