Have you ever been watching “The Walking Dead” TV show on AMC and thought to yourself, “These survivors have no idea what they are doing! I could do better.” Have you ever been watching and thought, “I bet it would be fun to be a zombie and terrorize the living.”
Enter The Walking Dead Escape, which takes place during San Diego’s Comic-Con, on July 19 and 20 at Petco Park, right next to the San Diego Convention Center.
Participants can choose to either be a survivor, a zombie or simply an observer. Survivors are tasked with making it out of the obstacle course while the walkers are trying to stop them and the observers enjoy the carnage from the sidelines.
“We approached Robert Kirkman, the creator of ‘The Walking Dead’ and we said, ‘Hey we got this idea,’” says Liam Brenner, producer of the event and founder of Ruckus sports. “We would love to put your zombies together with our obstacle course and create a whole new breed of events.”
Those who participate in the walker horde will receive a makeup job by Greg Nicotero, founder of KNB EFX group. Nicotero is responsible for the makeup in movies such as Kill Bill and Transformers as well as the makeup for “The Walking Dead.”
This is Skybound’s second time holding this event at Comic-Con, with the first having over 10,000 participants. According to Brenner, there is a lot more to look forward to this time around.
“This year, one of the comments we got was that everyone wanted more zombies on course, and we figured out how to do that,” says Brenner.
That they did, with the amount of zombies on the course being 50% greater than last year, bringing the total number of zombies on the course at any given time to 303. Each zombie’s makeup takes about 20 minutes to apply for a regular zombie to an hour for “hero” zombies, which receive an extended makeup job.
With involvement from AMC, there will probably be some obstacle zones that will have a very similar look and feel to parts of season three of the show, says Brenner.
“Two of the favorites from last year, which is the chain link megazone and the conex climb-over, are getting major facelifts and redesigns,” says Brenner. Another part of the course that Brenner is excited about is the new Governor’s Gladiator Pit, which he says the design crew put a lot of energy into.
At the end of the course, survivors will exit into the Escape Party, which is for all participants, even observers. There will be makeup demonstrations, zombie training school for people who weren’t zombies and exclusive merchandise from Skybound.
Unfortunately, the tickets to become a walker are sold out, but tickets for both observers and survivors are available through the website and on a walk-up basis. Tickets for survivors are $75 and $20 for spectators.
Waves of survivors are released every 20 minutes into the course after 5 p.m. until 10 p.m.
“It’s a great way to come down and enjoy the energy of convention week, especially if you don’t have a badge,” says Brenner.
