'The Walking Dead' Spin-Off Likely To Be Set In Australia

The cast for Cobalt, AMC's tentatively titled forthcoming spin-off for its world-beating zombie-apocalypse drama, The Walking Dead, is coming together solidly, with New Zealand-bred actor Cliff Curtis (Live Free Or Die Hard, The Dark Horse) joining the show late last week as its male lead Sean Cabrera, a divorced teacher — but his signing seems to say more about where the show is set than what it's about.

Although AMC hasn't officially expressed any details about the projected location of the series, Curtis is not the first non-American to be cast. His announcement followed earlier revelations that British actor and Harry Potter alumnus Frank Dillane and Sydney-bred actress Alycia Debnam-Carey would be filling the roles of, according to The AV Club, the "drug-addicted son" and "ambitious daughter" of final initial core character, as-yet-uncast guidance counsellor Nancy Tomkins.

So, taking into account that all three actors cast so far have come from countries where, for US TV's intents and purposes, everybody sounds alike — or, at least, non-American enough to convince audiences of their lingual authenticity — and given the fact that we know (a) Cobalt will be set in a different location than The Walking Dead, and (b) as recently as 2002, Australia was one of the world's top three producers of the mineral, it seems increasingly likely the companion series will tackle the undead uprising from the perspective of a whole new hemisphere.

Of course, we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that the actors' birth countries are probably of questionable weight — main series lead Andrew Lincoln is as British as they come, despite his character, Rick Grimes, being Georgian-born-and-bred — but the prevalence of non-American actors so early on can't be discounted, either. We're not totally ruling out the idea that it could be set in Curtis' home country of New Zealand — we could be way off-base with the Aussie cobalt connection — or even super long-shot England, but it's hard to deny that the case for an Australian-set spin-off is looking mighty strong. 

The pilot for The Walking Dead's companion series, Cobalt, screens on AMC in 2015. If it goes well, expect a full-series pick-up to follow.