Written by new-contact on May 12, 2015. Posted in On Location

Filming for Walking Dead zombie spinoff doubles Vancouver for Los Angeles

A spinoff of hugely successful zombie drama The Walking Dead is filming in Vancouver, doubling the Canadian city for Los Angeles. Fear the Walking Dead is a companion series set in California and follows a new set of characters during the initial onset of the zombie apocalypse.

The pilot was in fact filmed in Los Angeles but the six-part first series will be shot mostly in Vancouver, with limited Los Angeles shooting planned for later in the production schedule.

“Fear the Walking Dead takes us back to the earlier, more dangerous, more terrifying days of The Walking Dead,” said Robert Kirkman, an executive producer on the spinoff.

“A time when danger was lurking around every corner and the thing mostly likely to get you killed was your own ignorance of the rapidly changing world around you.

“The stakes are going to be higher and the ride more intense. We're going to show people all the insanity of civilisation crumbling that Rick Grimes (The Walking Dead’s main character) slept through. Buckle up.”

The Walking Dead has been set and filmed in and around Atlanta in Georgia for the past five years and has been a colossal ratings hit for cable channel AMC. Local shooting has also boosted Georgia’s production industry and helped turn Atlanta into one of the top filming hubs in the US.

Vancouver is a hugely popular production hub, second in Canada only to Toronto. Its success is partly driven by a generous filming incentive programme.

Production on Fear the Walking Dead begins in the same week that Los Angeles has called on TV production companies to make use of California’s boosted filming incentive programme, which prioritises television shoots. Los Angeles is aiming to bring more TV shoots back to the city, especially those with LA settings.

(Image: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC)