The Walking Dead's spin-off series will be set in Los Angeles

AMC's The Walking Dead is getting a spin-off TV series that will switch coasts and focus on the zombie apocalypse in Los Angeles, California, TV Line and Variety report. The companion series to The Walking Dead, which is primarily set in Atlanta, Georgia and surrounding areas, is expecting to begin airing in 2015.

The pilot for the unnamed zombie show will begin filming early next year, TV Line reports. The new show will explore "what is going on in the zombie apocalypse in other parts of the world," according to AMC president Charlie Collier.

AMC announced plans to make a second series based on The Walking Dead last year. The new series will feature an entirely new story and cast of characters, and "another unforgettable view of the zombie apocalypse," Collier said at the time.

Series creator Robert Kirkman will serve as executive producer of the show alongside Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert. Kirkman said the new series is not based on material from the existing comics.

"After 10 years of writing the comic book series [...], I couldn't be more thrilled about getting the chance to create a new corner of The Walking Dead universe," Kirkman said in an announcement last year. "The opportunity to make a show that isn't tethered by the events of the comic book, and is truly a blank page, has set my creativity racing."

The Walking Dead is currently in the middle of its fifth season, which will return to AMC on Feb. 8, 2015.