Netflix orders Z Nation spin-off Black Summer, starring Jaime King

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Actress Jaime King is a genre regular who has appeared in such films as SIN CITY, THE TRIPPER, THEY WAIT, and the remakes MY BLOODY VALENTINE (pictured above), MOTHER'S DAY, and SILENT NIGHT. Now she has signed on to star in the zombie drama series Black Summer, which has received an eight episode straight-to-series order from the Netflix streaming service.

Black Summer was created by Karl Schaefer, who also created and serves as executive producer on the Syfy zombie series Z Nation (which Netflix has the streaming rights to), and John Hyams, who is co-executive producer on Z Nation. Schaefer and Hyams will serve as co-showrunners on this new zombie project.

King will be playing 

a mother, torn from her daughter, who embarks upon a harrowing journey, stopping at nothing to find her. Thrust alongside a small group of American refugees, she must brave a hostile new world and make brutal decisions during the most deadly summer of a zombie apocalypse.

Black Summer is being referred to as a spin-off from Z Nation, although King's character has never appeared on Z Nation, so this is a "exists in the same universe" sort of spin-off, like Fear the Walking Dead was a spin-off from The Walking Dead but there were no crossover characters until Fear's fourth season.

While Z Nation has a comedic tone, Black Summer will be going for the scares. Schaefer says, 

Black Summer is before the apocalypse got weird and was just scary."

I've never watched an episode of Z Nation, but it doesn't sound like it will be necessary to do so before watching Black Summer – and I do want to watch Black Summer, since it stars King.

Z Nation and Black Summer are both being produced by The Asylum. The fifth season of Z Nation will begin airing on Syfy later this year.