The SDCC Tales Of The Walking Dead Trailer Is Star-Studded And Blood-Soaked
If George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" defined our understanding of, and sparked our appreciation for, the undead masses, then AMC's adaptation of "The Walking Dead" graphic novels fueled a full-on cultural conflagration. Created by Frank Darabont over two decades ago and aided in its ongoing success by (among many others) current writer and producer Channing Powell, the series became the most watched television show in cable history at the onset of its 5th season (via Forbes). By Season 6, it had already spawned the first of what would become many (perhaps too many) "The Walking Dead" spin-offs, when it introduced audiences to "Fear the Walking Dead" in the summer of 2015.
Now Powell, who has also been a long-time writer and producer on "Fear the Walking Dead," has teamed up with Executive Producer Scott M. Gimple for a new and infested anthology slated to debut on Sunday, August 14th, at 9pm EST on AMC. The series will consist of six standalone episodes, each containing its own central narrative, point of view, characters, tone, and, as AMC puts it, "relentless, life-threatening choices and situations." Today, at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, fans got their first glimpse of yet another take on the walker apocalypse, complete with a litany of famous faces in an alternately terrifying, relevant, and blood-soaked trailer.
Tales of the Walking Dead brings the variety
The trailer begins with an ominous Southern drawl insisting that in the throes of the apocalypse, "We do what we think is right — even if it hurts the ones we love." We're then introduced to a number of the new series' central protagonists, including a pragmatic badass portrayed by Terry Crews. "No one ever thinks bad things will happen," he says. This certainly seems to be the case for a stunned, purple peacoat and pink stole-wearing Parker Posey, though Olivia Munn and Poppy Liu's gritty characters appear decidedly more aware of, and disillusioned by, the chaos that surrounds them. As for Jessie T. Usher ("The Boys"), his character toys with an existential crisis, while Anthony Edwards' stock Man of Science attempts to study the poor creatures. All the while, Jillian Bell bonds and bickers with Posey's out-of-touch Blair — a name that pretty much says it all.
Samantha Morton (reprising her role of Alpha from "The Walking Dead"), Embeth Davidtz ("Ray Donovan"), Lauren Glazier ("Mindhunter"), and an endless stream of characteristically "The Walking Dead" zombies (sorry, walkers) flesh out the tonally mercurial trailer, which zig-zags between punchlines about protein powder, grotesque images of the undead and their eating habits, and chilling rhetorical questions. Faces are covered in blood, a torch-wielding mob of the living attacks one of their own, and relationships are explored in the minute-and-a-half preview of the universe's ambitious new anthology.