'Fear the Walking Dead': Get to Know Madison and Travis

Fear the Walking Dead could be subtitled Love Among the Walkers. While we should make it clear the walkers won’t actually be called “walkers” in The Walking Dead companion series, the humans at the front and center of the FTWD storyline are happy couple Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis).

Well, they were happy… Now things are a little more grim.

How they’ll manage their affairs — professional and personal — once their Los Angeles hometown becomes overrun with the undead beings will be a big part of the action in Season 1. When we meet Madison and Travis in the series premiere, their biggest concerns revolve around their children — each has kids from previous relationships. No spoilers on that front, but suffice it to say that even some pretty dire family affairs are going to take a backseat once the blended Clark-Manawa household members come face-to-face with the new, altered state of some of their fellow citizenry.

Both Madison and Travis appear to be good leader material. Madison is the school’s guidance counselor, used to trying to maintain calm in chaotic situations, and, as per the network’s official description, the widowed mom of two will find the “pressure of survival brings clarity… she is quick to make the hard choices that will keep her family alive.”

As for Travis, a divorced father of one and the English teacher at Madison’s school, “he’s a good man — everyone’s All-American. As the group’s patriarch, he is protective, pragmatic and resolute in his conviction that anything can be fixed. He maintains a relationship with his ex-wife and resentful son while trying to become a father to Madison’s children.”

That certainly sounds like Travis will be this series’ version of Rick Grimes, right? And love connection aside, we’re getting less of a Lori vibe, and more of a Carol-meets-Michonne vibe from new heroine Madison.

Questions we can’t wait to get answers to in Fear The Walking Dead:

* Madison and Travis have a lot of responsibilities on their plates, both jointly and individually, and both in their personal lives and as school employees… will they remain a small family unit or end up with a Rick Grimes group-sized pack of survivors once the L.A. apocalypse really goes down?

* Since it’s very early in the apocalypse — we will get to see this major city unravel — the walkers will not look nearly as gruesome as they do in The Walking Dead. But how quickly will their bodies disintegrate once the whatever-causes-the-outbreak sparks?

* How quickly will the apocalypse spin out of control? (Also meaning, how long will it take for the timeline of FTWD to catch up with the timeline of TWD?)

* Like TWD, will we find out character backstories throughout the series, or will we learn about these new characters’ stories all at once?

* Will FTWD have big baddies like The Governor and Gareth?

What are your FTWD burning questions?

Fear the Walking Dead premieres Aug. 23 at 9 p.m. on AMC.