'Fear The Walking Dead' News: Cliff Curtis Offers Thoughts On What Caused The Zombie Apocalypse
Although AMC's "The Walking Dead" is now on its sixth season and its prequel series, "Fear the Walking Dead," has wrapped up its first with six episodes, the franchise has still kept viewers in the dark about what exactly led to the outbreak that had zombies taking over the world. Nevertheless, this hasn't stopped fans - and even "Walking Dead" insiders - from forming their own theories about the cause of the zombie apocalypse.
In an interview with Collider, Cliff Curtis, who plays the lead role of Travis Manawa in "Fear the Walking Dead," shared what he thinks is a likely explanation for what happened. He said:
"It's not on the show, but what I think is a really strong possibility is that all of the government laws around immunization of children and how it's illegal to not be immunized, so that you have all of these kids who, for generations, are immunized, but then something goes wrong and you have thousands and thousands and thousands of people, all around the world, buying these immunizations for flu shots or to fight bacteria or disease, and we've basically become over-immune and our immune system takes over and refuses to let the body die. That's my theory."
Whether or not this idea is plausible is up for debate, even if, as "Fear the Walking Dead" showrunner Dave Erickson has stated, viewers will never find out what led to the zombie apocalypse. The cause of the outbreak has never been - and will never be - explained in the Robert Kirkman comics. Neither "Fear the Walking Dead" nor the flagship drama, "The Walking Dead," will reveal the reason behind civilization as viewers know it crumbling into chaos. This is despite of Erickson's best pitches to Kirkman, every single one of which was shut down. In August, Erickson, who co-created "Fear" with Kirkman, told The Hollywood Reporter that for the "Walking Dead" comics creator, it's not about what caused the zombie apocalypse; instead, he wants to tell the story of its impact on people.
After "The Walking Dead" aired its mid-season finale on Nov. 29, AMC announced that its companion and prequel show, "Fear the Walking Dead," will be returning for a second season in the spring of 2016. AMC has reportedly ordered 15 episodes for Season 2. "The Walking Dead" returns with the second half of its sixth season on Feb. 14, 2016.