AMC announced today from the Television Critics Association (TCA) Press Tour a 15-episode order for Season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead, which will air in 2016. One of summer's most anticipated new series, Fear the Walking Dead was greenlit back in March for two seasons. As previously announced, the series will debut in the U.S. Sunday, August 23rd at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT with an extended 90-minute episode. The premiere will also air on AMC Global channels around the world simultaneously and will then re-air in local time zones during primetime. A special episode of Talking Dead, hosted by Chris Hardwick (Nerdist), will follow the season one finale on Sunday, October 4th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (U.S. only).

Living in the same universe as The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead is a gritty drama that explores the onset of the zombie apocalypse through the lens of a fractured family. Set in a city where people come to escape, shield secrets, and bury their pasts, a mysterious outbreak threatens to disrupt what little stability high school guidance counselor Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and English teacher Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) have managed to assemble. The everyday pressure of blending two families while dealing with resentful, escapist, and strung out children takes a back seat when society begins to break down. A forced evolution, a necessary survival of the fittest takes hold, and our dysfunctional family must either reinvent themselves or embrace their darker histories.

Fear the Walking Dead is executive produced by Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero, David Alpert and showrunner Dave Erickson and produced by AMC Studios. The series stars Kim Dickens as Madison, Cliff Curtis as Travis, Frank Dillane as Nick, Alycia Debnam Carey as Alicia, Elizabeth Rodriguez as Liza, Rubén Blades as Daniel, Mercedes Masöhn as Ofelia and Lorenzo James Henrie as Chris. AMC Global launched in late 2014 and is available in over 125 countries throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Fear the Walking Dead will launch in the UK shortly following the worldwide premiere. Timing will be announced soon.

Showrunner Dave Erickson also revealed a number of new details for Fear the Walking Dead during the TCA summer tour presentation. The show is set in Los Angeles, thousands of miles away from The Walking Dead characters on the East Coast. Much like the original show, the first season will contain six episodes, but the showrunner teased that this spinoff will have a slower pace than the flagship series. Here's what he had to say during the TCA presentation.

"We purposely built the show a bit more slowly than the original. We call them 'infected' and not 'walkers.' There's absolutely going to be walkers, [but] there will be a build. By design, we tried to make it as much about the anxiety and paranoia and tension that goes along with this outbreak, as about the actual confrontations with the zombies."

We also know that Fear the Walking Dead is set just as the zombie apocalypse is getting started, before the world was completely overrun by the undead. Dave Erickson stated that the full-blown zombie apocalypse won't happen right away, most likely being saved for Season 2. He did state that, by the end of the first season, "we definitely know the world has changed." The showrunner also clarified, once again, that there are no current plans for both Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead to cross over.

"There's no crossover plans right now. We're telling parallel narratives that live under the same mythological umbrella... but there's no intention of having Easter eggs or character references."

With less than one month left until the 90-minute premiere of Fear the Walking Dead debuts on August 23, you can be sure to expect much more footage to debut between then and now. Is there anything specific you're hoping to see on the West Coast in Fear the Walking Dead? Let us know what you think, and stay tuned for more on this highly-anticipated zombie spinoff.