The cancellation of Z Nation last November was upsetting for the fans, but there's a new zombie drama that could potentially land the same loyal followers. Netflix is dropping the first season of the Z Nationprequel Black Summer this coming April, and it is expected to give other shows in the zombie genre a tough competition.
Netflix first unveiled the coming of Black Summer with a terrifying teaser. The clip highlighted Jamie King as the lead character, Rose, who is trying to avoid and protect herself from the mayhem created by flesh-eating zombies.
Rose is a mother who gets separated from her daughter at the height of the chaos in Black Summer. For the rest of the first season, Rose goes on a quest to find her child, along with a small group of survivors she has met along the way. Their tough journey ahead is a test of courage and of making decisive choices to thrive in this zombie apocalypse.
Joining King in Black Summer are Kelsey Flower as Lance and Justin Chu Cary as Spears. The rest of the cast include Mustafa Alabssi, Christine Lee, Gwynyth Walsh, Erika Hau, Sal Velez, Jr., Aidan Fink, Kash Hill, and Edsson Morales.
Black Summer filmed the first season in early 2018. By September of that same year, Netflix released the first rough cut during fan panel. The streaming platform also confirmed that season 1 would have eight episodes.
Black Summer is from creators Karl Schaefer and John Hyams. Schaefer was the co-creator of Z Nation, but the shows will not be identical at all. Though the shows come from a shared universe, everything else will be different.
"The only similarity between Z Nation and Black Summer is that the Black Summer is the first summer that Z Nation took place in," producer Jodi Binstock told SYFY during the hatching of the prequel. "This is the first outbreak; this is when all the sh*t's hitting the fan."
For now, however, it's unclear if characters from Z Nation will appear on Black Summer, much like what happened to The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, another zombie drama franchise. The first season of Black Summer won't have any of the characters from the mother series, but if and when the show earns a successful run on Netflix, then there could be cameos in the next seasons.
All episodes of Black Summer season 1 will drop on Netflix on Thursday, April 11.
