Season two of Fear The Walking Dead will consist of 15 episodes

The first season of Fear The Walking Dead, AMC's upcoming spin-off of The Walking Dead, hasn't even premiered yet but an extended second season is already in the cards. During the Television Critics Association Press Tour, it was announced that the second season of Fear The Walking Dead will consist of fifteen episodes, which is quite a bump up compared to the six which will make up its first season.

We already know that the first season of Fear The Walking Dead will take place in between the time of Rick's coma in The Walking Dead, but showrunner Dave Erickson said that there will still be some time to burn before we reach the point when Rick Grimes wakes up:

By the end of Season 1 we know the world has changed and it is the end of the world as we know but it not yet at the point where Rick woke up in Georgia, we come to realize the world has changed but our characters are still insulated from all of what has happened, part of what they will see in Season 2 will be that.

The first season will also cover just how the government, police, and military responded to the outbreak, something which has been seldom touched upon in The Walking Dead, but David Erickson reiterated that the one thing they won't cover in the new series is the cause of the zombie outbreak. Erickson also hinted that Fear The Walking Dead may not always remain in The Walking Dead's past, saying that “there might be a season where we do a major time cut because that’s always interesting to me, how do you catch up with your character when six months have gone by, a year’s gone by? Right now it’s not about how we intersect or catch up.” Catching up to The Walking Dead's "present" doesn't mean that the new characters will meet up with Rick Grimes and company however, Erickson said that there are no plans for a crossover.

From AMC's press-release:

Living in the same universe as “The Walking Dead,” “Fear the Walking Dead” is a gritty drama that explores the onset of the undead 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 will premiere on August 23, 2015 with an extended 90 minute episode while the sixth season of The Walking Dead is set to debut on October 11, 2015. Speaking of The Walking Dead, several new photos of some particularly grisly looking walkers have been released, check them out!