The Walking Dead Spinoff Gains Cliff Curtis

Just a few days ago, we brought you the first casting news for AMC’s upcoming Walking Dead spinoff, tentatively titled Cobalt. Now, the planned post-apocalyptic drama series has cast its first lead actor, with word that Cliff Curtis, formerly of Fox’s short-lived Gang Related, has come aboard.

The actor will play Sean Cabrera, a local teacher described as “a good man trying to do right by everyone in his life.” Producers are still looking to cast an actress in the lead role of Nancy Tomkins, a guidance counselor who works at the school with Sean at the time of the outbreak. Fringe‘s Anna Torv was at one point in consideration for the part, but sources report that she’s no longer in the mix.

Curtis joins the previously cast Frank Dillane (as Nancy’s rebellious son) and Alycia Debnam Carey (as Nancy’s ambitious daughter) in the series, which will be set in the same universe as The Walking Dead but focuses on a different group of zombie plague survivors eking out an existence in a different part of the United States. Cobalt is set to open at the beginning of the zombie outbreak.

Robert Kirkman, who wrote the Walking Dead comic book series, and David Erickson, who will serve as showrunner on Cobalt, share creator credit on the spinoff series. Adam Davidson is set to direct the pilot, which begins production later this month. We’ll be on the lookout for more casting news as that shooting date draws closer.

Though AMC has only ordered a pilot for Cobalt at this point, the spinoff series is considered a good bet to get a series order. The Walking Dead is a gargantuan hit for the network, and it’s certainly in AMC’s interest to expand the property outward into a full-blown universe of shows.