'Fear The Walking Dead' Spoilers: Cast Member Elizabeth Rodriguez Reveals Her Role In Early Episodes

With AMC’s premiere of “Fear the Walking Dead” rapidly approaching, fans of “The Walking Dead” are desperately hoping the companion series will be another dose of the show they love. The new series promises to tackle a time not yet seen in the series’ mythos, and now, one of the program's key actresses is sharing details about how it all will unfold.

The show takes place before episode one of “The Walking Dead.” The original series has shown fans everything under the sun in terms of what the world looks like after the zombie apocalypse, but many are curious to see how “Fear the Walking Dead” will portray the time before it.

As previously reported, the show nabbed “Orange Is the New Black” star Elizabeth Rodriguez as a key cast member. The show centers around characters Travis (Cliff Curtis) and Madison (Kim Dickens) bringing their broken families together, Rodriguez plays Liza, the ex-wife to Travis. Together, they have a son who links them and will apparently continue to do so after the zombie apocalypse. The actress revealed to Entertainment Weekly this link, coupled with her status as a student nurse, will give her a unique peek behind the curtain as to what’s happening in Los Angeles.

“As a nursing student, in the coming episodes I end up finding that is what I can do,” she said, before dropping a major spoiler about her character arc. “I have to ultimately lie and tell people in the community that I am a nurse so they can trust me and have instincts to sort of kick in and do what I can, until a doctor shows up, and then she tells me to go with her and help more people. And I end up seeing things on a grander scale and discovering other things that the rest of the family doesn’t know about. I end up leaving my family and becoming really fancy in this story.”

The actress was careful not to spoil too much about her character’s upcoming story. However, given her comments, it’s not unreasonable to assume she’ll act as viewer’s eyes into the world of medical triage during the early stages of the infection. It’s unclear exactly what Rodriguez’s character ends up seeing once she’s granted access to more responsibility, but if the state of the hospital that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) wakes up in during “The Walking Dead” episode 1 is any indication, it won’t be good at all.

Several critics are already praising “Fear the Walking Dead.” The Wall Street Journal hailed the series for its tight storytelling and intense scares. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone suggested the biggest appeal of the show is watching the city of Los Angeles crumble to the ground as a metaphor for its influence on popular culture. In any case, the main focus of Sunday’s premiere will be forcing viewers to witness what happens to these seemingly normal people when the very not-so-normal outbreak forces humanity into a corner.