By Dakota Cantwell

Netflix is set to produce an 8 episode straight to streaming series called “Black Summer”. This series is spinoff of the Syfy series “Z Nation”, for which Netflix already has the streaming rights.  

“Black Summer” will have the creator of “Z Nation” Karl Shaefer and its producer John Hyams as its showrunners.

According to Hollywood reporter, “Black Summer stars Jaime King (Hart of Dixie) as a mother who is torn from her daughter and 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.”

This will be King’s first time to the “Z Nation” franchise, but has been in many series up till now, including “Heart of Dixie” and “Gay Unmarried”.  

Unlike its predecessor, “Black Summer” will not be a dramedy and instead focus on a more intense horror zombie storyline.

According to Syfy Wire Shaefer said at a Comic Con panel “the spin-off is not going to be episodic, but will instead be an eight-hour chunk to work through. And that it’s not intended to be the funny version of The Walking Dead that Z Nation is, but instead an old-school, scary, zombie thing.”

“Z Nation” is set to begin begin its fifth season in October of this year and has been fairly successful for the Syfy channel in its four seasons up till now.  As of now, it seems unlikely that there would be any form of crossover between “Z Nation” and “Black Summer” given that the latter is a prequel to the original series.  

This is not the first time that Netflix has funded spin off series. Netflix is currently in production of “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”, a spin off of the CW’s “Riverdale”.