Fear the Walking Dead Renewed By AMC for Season 3

AMC's successful spin-off series will returns with a 16-episode third season in 2017

The zombie apocalypse: bad for humanity, but so good for business.

Mere days after the second season premiere of Fear the Walking Dead, AMC has announced that it's already picked up the super successful spin-off for a third season, E! News has confirmed. The prequel series, set in the early days of the end of the world, will air its largest season yet in 2017: 16 episodes, up two from season two and a whopping 10 more than season one. 

The renewal comes as little surprise. The second season premiere solidified Fear the Walking Dead's position as the No. 2 show on cable—second only to flagship The Walking Dead, of course—with 8.8 million overall viewers. Scoring 5.3 million viewers in the coveted adults 18-49 demo, Fear also returned as the No. 7 show in all of television in that key demo. Long story short: Zombies aren't going anywhere any time soon.

"What Dave Erickson and Robert Kirkman have invented in Fear the Walking Dead is to be applauded. 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," Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios said in a statement. "As Victor Strand observed, 'The only way to survive a mad world is to embrace the madness.' We thank the millions of fans for embracing this mad world and look forward to sailing far into the future."

The network also announced that its live aftershow Talking Dead: Fear would return for a third season as well, ensuring that host Chris Hardwick, much like the zombies he chats about, will almost always be on your TV screen.

Fear the Walking Dead stars Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Mercedes Mason, Lorenzo James Henrie, Ruben Blades, and Coleman Domingo.

Are you looking forward to a third season of Fear's swimming (floating?) zombies? Let us know in the comments below.

Season two of Fear the Walking Dead continues with new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.