It’s common knowledge that AMC’s The Walking Dead spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead will be set in Los Angeles. The SDCC panel proved to be quite informative, however.

From the sounds of it, Fear the Walking Dead will be very distinctive show that should be set apart from the original. Even in the setting, a tropical former paradise, is as far removed from The Walking Dead’s rural Georgia as you can get. It is part of the same universe, so for those that know The Walking Dead we know all too well what’s in store—watching the characters come to understand what is happening, and how they will deal with it. And survive.

Here are a few things we learned at the panel:

It is covering the 4-5 weeks (loosely set during Rick Grimes’ coma) leading up to the apocalypse—when cell phones still work and people still show up to their jobs. Even by the end of this season we are not necessarily caught up to where The Walking Dead began.

It’s not a duplicated Walking Dead. It’s purposefully different. They don’t get to full on apocalypse mode until the end of the season, starting instead as a family drama and developing into gruesome chaos as everyone watches the fall of LA.

The blended family is highly dysfunctional, including new and ex-wives, children and step-children, all trying to keep it together when everything goes to hell. Who will survive? A random group of survivors ride out the peak of collision between the living the dead, and must figure out where they stand once the fires burn everything down.

There are no plans to conflate the two shows ever, though no one confirmed that it would never happen. There was confirmation, however, that the Staples Center remains untouched. At least for now.

According to writer and co-creator Dave Erickson, societal and gender norms will get turned on their heads right out of the gate. In such a multi-layered city the focus, for now, is mostly in East LA, and the responses of each diverse neighborhood in the city is vastly different.

“What’s great is they’re completely unprepared, he doesn’t have any specific set of skills to give them a boost, it’s not like he’s a cop. So there’s a humanity there.” -Cliff Curtis

Frank Dillane plays Nick, the eldest teenage son of Madison whose dad died a while ago, is dealing with his own monsters when he comes face to face with a new set of them. Named as a sort of prophet in this new world being the first to come face to face with a walker, the question is whether or not those issues will help or hinder his survival.

As far as the crafting of the new walkers, they will look vastly different than the fairly rotted living corpses in The Walking Dead. There will be less decomposition, so their humanity still appears to be there. There’s still a little light in their eyes that inspire some hesitation as to how one might react when approached by one.

We see exactly what each character, all along the age spectrum, loses when their entire lives unravel. Characters will start learning what to choose, prioritizing tragedies in a way that might cause people to question their potential overreaction to comparatively mundane heartaches.

The cast, including Grammy-winner Ruben Blades, only met each other on the day of the table read.

The differences from The Walking Dead don’t just come from a change in location, as this new batch of characters differ significantly from Rick and his group. It’s easy to envision Rick Grimes, former deputy, as a leader, but here we follow an English teacher and a guidance counselor barely hanging on in a fully functioning world, before they’re suddenly thrust into a world that’s dissipating rapidly.

As producer David Alpert so eloquently sums up, the question from all of us is, “Who from coal becomes a diamond and who crumples into dust.” And therein lies the common fascination for both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead fans, as we question who we will identify with, good or bad.

The biggest question for all will be if Chris Hardwick ever cameos as a walker, which was neither confirmed nor denied during the panel, though Hardwick declared both his hesitation and his openness to the idea.

Fear the Walking Dead will premiering on August 23rd at 9pm (EST) internationally on AMC global at the exact same time. This will thankfully negate the need to avoid social media spoilers. And fans of Chris Hardwick will be happy to learn that he will cover the series on The Talking Dead.

The Walking Dead panel gave fans a good idea of what to expect for season 6, beginning almost immediately with a trailer for the upcoming season—premiering in a 90-minute episode on Sunday October 11 at 9pm—that opens with lead character Rick Grimes running, and running hard. Not a new sight after five seasons of the show.

Most notable from the trailer is Morgan (Lennie James) joining the clan at Alexandria after having trailed Rick throughout last season. The trailer alludes to some tension between Rick and Morgan but showrunner Scott Gimple, immediately after the trailer played, admitted to the show’s notorious tendency to spin previews into misleading audiences from clues to what is upcoming.

The most interesting part of the trailer, for fans, was at the very end, where fan-favorite Darryl (Norman Reedus) is seen bound with a gun to his head by the leader of the Wolves, the menacing group we’ve only begun to see introduced as a threat to Rick and co. Interesting to note, Ethan Embry was featured as a new cast member in the trailer and Gimple revealed Merritt Wever would also be joining the cast.

Panel moderator Chris Hardwick led most of the cast of the show, Gimple, and executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and Greg Nicotero through questions around upcoming story and character development.

Gimple did say there would be more flashbacks in the new season, saying a whole episode may be entirely in flashback and that they would “definitely be playing with time.”

He also said the Wolves will play a part in a way audiences won’t expect. Andrew Lincoln, who plays Sheriff leader Rick Grimes was asked about his characters’ final facial hair moment this past season. Does he miss the beard? He stated, “My wife doesn’t miss it” and joked about how co-star Steven Yeuen remarked after the shave that he looked like he had a shrunken head.

Hardwick asked Yeuen about Glenn—his character—and one of his storylines this past season: Glenn’s frustrating decision not to kill Nicholas. Yeuen spoke about Glenn’s desire for Nicholas’s redemption and his own need to save himself. But he did joke he wouldn’t trust Nicholas to push any revolving doors.

It was Lennie James’s (Morgan) first time on the panel. He spoke about Morgan and Rick’s “particular man-love” hinting that maybe things won’t be quite so tense between Morgan and Rick next season like the trailer insinuates.

Sonequa Martin-Green spoke passionately about the arc of her character Sasha, saying it was an honor to portray PTSD in honor of those who have suffered and that she thinks Sasha will find hope at the end of the tunnel.

Audience favorite Norman Reedus was initially given some rather bland questions including what he does to get into character—Motorhead and Candy Crush as it turns out—and for the record his favorite emoji is the red balloon. Eventually he was asked his predictions for Darryl next season. He commented that Darryl isn’t into suburbia so he’s likely to be getting restless.

As has become tradition they played a blooper reel and the cast showed their tightknit comradery and senses of humor. Andrew Lincoln admitted his mother would like Rick and Michonne to get together. Gimple says he’ll take note.

The 90-minute season premiere will preview at Madison Square Garden and fans can catch up on all the seasons as AMC shows an entire season every Sunday starting later in July.

We’re shaking with excitement. For those, like us, who can’t get enough of any type of Walking Dead, Feared or otherwise, any morsel of what’s in store for us in the future gets us all geared up and ready to take on the apocalyptic world. So we’re sharing it with you.

The Fear the Walking Dead clip posted by Variety just this morning really puts the “tease” in teaser. It doesn’t give away much. Except that there will be a lot of…fear. No smidgen of a zombie is seen, but rumor has it they will have quite a different look from the current zombie type in Walking Dead as they will be a bit, well, more fresh. The trailer is titled “Nick’s Escape” so we’re guessing this is a character who might get more than a quick grisly death. IMDB credits a “Nick,” played by Frank Dillane, with six episodes in the series so we’ll see.

Also starring Ruben Blades, Mercedes Mason, Cliff Curtis, and Kim Dickens, to name a few, Fear the Walking Dead is set in Los Angeles at the very start of the walker outbreak. Or whatever we’re now calling it. Walking Dead fans may get a little bit more information on all that led up to where they started out back in 2010, but no one’s promising anything.

Check back with us in July when we cover the San Diego Comic-Con as both shows will be there along with Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick.

Fear the Walking Dead is set to premiere in August on AMC in what is as yet a two-season commitment.