‘Fear the Walking Dead’ is renewed by AMC for a third season

The zombies of “Fear the Walking Dead” will continue their West Coast residency for a while: AMC’s “The Walking Dead” spinoff series just got the OK for a third season.

The prequel to “The Walking Dead” began its second season Sunday, with the story now set at sea instead of in an apocalyptic Los Angeles.

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“What Dave Erickson and Robert Kirkman have invented in ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ is to be applauded,” AMC President Charlie Collier, who’s also president of SundanceTV and AMC Studios, said Friday in a statement.

“Watching Los Angeles crumble through the eyes of our characters and seeing each make decisions and try to figure out the rules of their new world -- it’s fresh, eerie and compelling and we’re all in for the ride,” he added.

And while that ride is happening on the deep blue sea?

“Los Angeles is one thing, but there’s something very discomforting about being in the middle of the ocean,” executive producer Dave Erickson told The Times last week ahead of the Season 2 premiere. “It’s a personal phobia of mine. To be stuck in the middle of the ocean and be surrounded by others who have also taken to the water, and the danger they represent, is a different kind of claustrophobia.”

In coming episodes, the show “will be exploring what it’s like to be an apocalyptic refugee,” he said. Erickson has also said the show action will eventually return to dry land.

“FTWD” will continue in 2017 with 16 additional episodes, the network announced Friday. That’s up from six episodes in its first season and 15 in the second.

“Talking Dead: Fear,” the live post-game show hosted by Chris Hardwick, has been renewed as well and will follow all new episodes of “Fear the Walking Dead,” the network said.

The show -- which is No. 2 on cable behind “The Walking Dead” -- airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on AMC.

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.

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