'Fear The Walking Dead' Cast Adds Two More Characters As Plot Details Are Revealed

The cast of AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead,” the upcoming companion series to its massively popular hit “The Walking Dead” just added two new regulars to the cast. Both Ruben Blades and Lorenzo James will play vital roles in the spinoff show.

Although it’s currently filming in Vancouver and L.A., the two actors have just signed onto the zombie drama that deals with how the infamous world-ending outbreak began. As previously reported, the show will focus heavily on the civil unrest that emerges once walkers, biters, roamers, geeks and lame brains start infesting the city of Los Angeles.

According to Deadline, Blades will play a character named Daniel, the father to Mercedes Mason’s character in the show. It’s unclear exactly what impact this father and daughter duo will have on the larger story in “Fear the Walking Dead” as very little details are known. Recently, the series’ showrunner shared some plot details about potential crossovers and now, comic book creator Robert Kirkman is shedding some light on what the show will be about.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the 36-year-old writer revealed the show’s main protagonists will be schoolteachers Madison (Kim Dickens) and Travis (Cliff Curtis). Although she is a widow and he is divorced, they’ve found love in each other and will act as a team in leading their group of survivors through the impending apocalypse. Unfortunately, their group dynamic won’t be quite as free wheeling as Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) on “The Walking Dead.” Both Travis and Madison have kids from their previous marriages. She has a high-school overachieving daughter named Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and a college flunk-out named Nick (Frank Dillane). Meanwhile, Travis is bringing his son Chris, who resents his father for the end of his marriage to his mom Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez). The outlet exclusively revealed that Chris will be played by Lorenzo James, who "Star Trek" fans may remember as one of young Spock's bullies in J.J. Abrams' 2009 remake.

“They do love and respect each other,” Kirkman told EW of the parents. “They’re a happy couple, which is something that you don’t see a lot of on cable television these days. Usually cable television focuses on infidelity, love triangles, divorces, marriages breaking down—that’s really the meat and potatoes of the drama we mostly deal with on TV. So having this interesting couple at the core of this show, fighting against the backdrop of civilization crumbling and the zombie apocalypse, really is the core of things.”

“Fear the Walking Dead” is expected to hit AMC sometime late this summer ahead of the Season 6 return of “The Walking Dead.”