Perhaps unsurprisingly, as one series is a wholly different entity and the other is founded on the principle of changing with each new season, both American Horror Storys fifth go and The Walking Deads upcoming spin-off are being anticipated as either very, or startlingly, or another grandiose amount of different.
Speaking to TVLine, FX CEO John Landgraf believes the post-Freak Show season of fan fave AHS will feel like more of an overhaul than usual. I think theres going to be an unusually large reinvention in between Book 4 and Book 5 relative to, say, between Book 3 [Coven] and 4 [Freak Show], Landgraf says. He hopes the fifth season will be present-set, though Im curious what else he means. Each season of American Horror Story isnt simply set in a different time and place, but ultimately dons a different style. Murder House jammed haunted house pastiche with ultra-contemporary urban legend; Asylum painted with Eurohorror and Nunsploitation colors; Coven was of course a sort of pop-art, teen witch party; and Freak Show, while recalling the Browning classic, also works in circus horrors and Sirkian melodrama. Perhaps the biggest change could be to theme (being ostracized looms large) and casting. Regarding speculation Freak Show could be series star Jessica Langes finale, the network head notes, Ryan [Murphy, co-creator] is really, really independent in how he makes these shows and what he does. So I know the setting, I know something about the characters and something about the tone and the time period, but I dont actually know the cast yet.
Meanwhile, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman talked to EW about the currently developing WD spin-off series, which is slated to be set in Los Angeles and not feature any of the comic or main series characters. I think the look and feel of The Walking Dead spinoff is going to be startlingly different, he explains. I will say that this is going to be a show about family, but its going to be a show about a different type of family that we havent explored in The Walking Dead thus far. So what were trying to do with The Walking Dead spinoff is keep the story as familiar as possible for people that love The Walking Dead, so youll get the kind of things that you expect from a Walking Dead story. But, at the same time, well want to tell these stories in a completely different way with completely different people in a completely different setting thats going to make for a fundamentally different show.
Previously referred to as Cobalt, The Walking Deads companion series will star prolific character actor Cliff Curtis as a divorced teacher.
