Z Nation is an American horror television series that aired on Syfy, created by Karl Schaefer and Craig Engler, and was produced by The Asylum.

[5] In March 2024, The Asylum made a post on Twitter that suggested a sixth season of Z Nation might be in the works.

In the days just before society fell apart, Alvin Bernard Murphy was one of three inmates at Portsmouth Naval Prison in Kittery, Maine, who were participants in a government-approved experiment.

The series revolves around his travels with a small group of survivors being led through the apocalypse by Lieutenant Roberta Warren and Simon "Citizen Z" Cruller, an NSA hacker with nearly unlimited radio and computer access.

The group must transport Murphy from New York to the world's last known functioning Centers for Disease Control research lab in California.

[13][14] Schaefer and Engler have described Z Nation as an attempt to "put the fun back into zombies", criticizing shows like The Walking Dead for being too serious.

[31][32] Rotten Tomatoes gave the show a rating of 45%, based on reviews from 20 critics, with the site's consensus stating "Although it's hampered by an overcrowded narrative, Z Nation manages to muster up some fun scares without taking itself too seriously.

"[34] Brian Moylan of The Guardian called Z Nation scary "in the same vague way as that talking green blob is in the Mucinex commercials" and concluded that viewers would hate all the characters, but that "Citizen Z (DJ Qualls) is especially horrible.

[39] On July 19, 2018, it was reported that Netflix had given an eight-episode straight-to-series order for Black Summer, a prequel series set within the Z Nation universe.

Actress Jaime King was set to star in the series, created by Schaefer and John Hyams.

He also said that the drama series is not intended to be the funny version of The Walking Dead that Z Nation is, but instead would be a more traditional take on zombie lore.