Age of The Nerd
As we learned from the “Fear The Walking Dead” panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the series has been renewed for a sixth season which will premiere sometime next year, as the mid-season finale for season five aired on Sunday, July 21st.
In “Fear the Walking Dead” Season five, the group’s mission is clear: locate survivors and help make what’s left of the world a slightly better place. With dogged determination, Morgan Jones (Lennie James) leads the group with a philosophy rooted in benevolence, community, and hope. Each character believes that helping others will allow them to make up for the wrongs of their pasts. But trust won’t be easily earned. Their mission of helping others will be put to the ultimate test when our group finds themselves in unchartered territory, one which will force them to face not just their pasts but also their fears. It is only through facing those fears that the group will discover an entirely new way to live, one that will leave them forever changed.
**Spoiler Alert** (contains some details of the mid-season finale episode)
After the events of the mid-season finale, we see that the majority of our beloved characters appear to have made it although we really thought Alicia was done for, as the last time we saw her she was covered in radioactive walker guts, however, it appears that she will survive. It did not look like everyone was going to make it to the plane before we went into full nuclear meltdown, especially John and Dwight as their car broke down, but of course, they made it just in time for take-off!
One of the more adorable moments was when John tied a candy wrapper into a ring and ended up popping the question to June and you bet she said yes! Look like there will be a post-apocalyptic wedding in the near future. The finale ended on a happier note than that of previous seasons, however, that certainly doesn’t answer the question of whether or not the group can truly trust Logan and just what will be in store for the future.
We caught up with the cast of “Fear The Walking Dead” at San Diego Comic-Con to see what they had to say about season five, their characters, and more. We spoke with Scott Gimple, Austin Amelio, Lennie James, Alycia-Debnam-Carey, Danay Garcia, Maggie Grace, Karen David, Jenna Elfman, Alexa Nisenson, and Executive Producers Andrew Chambliss, and Ian Goldberg.
When speaking about what is in-store going into season six, Andrew Chambliss tells us, “The world is going to expand in a big way and by the time we get to the end of the season [five], it is really going to shake the entire group to the very core and really change the show in a way that will launch us into season six, in a really big way.”
Ian Goldberg adds, “We really see season five as one big epic story, but as you’ll see if you continue to watch, it all builds to an ending which very much sets up what the design of season six is going to be and we’ve been planning it for a while”.
Of course, fans want to know if there is any chance of a cross-over event between “Fear The Walking Dead” and any of the other “Walking Dead” universe stories to which Goldberg says, “Maybe. But not until deep into the future.” Goldberg goes on to explain that one of the shows bigger mysteries, such as why Salazar appears wherever our heroes end up will “tie into an unbelievably cool storyline that we have been working on for the last year.”
Talking to us about what they would like to see for their characters going into season six, Alexa Nisenson reveals, “I would love to see Charlie continue to try to redeem herself and for the group to truly, truly forgive her.” She’d like for Charlie to save someone’s life to help with her redemption arc.
Jenna Elfman spoke about all of the challenges June has had to face and overcome and says that they have made her “stronger, even if they temporarily knocked her down for a bit.” She would like to see June’s “warrior moment”. As for Danay Garcia, she would like to Luciana as both “physically and emotionally strong again and is curious to see the woman that she is right now.” Ruben Blades gave us the best response saying, “Basically my goal is to stay alive! That’s my goal!”
Discussing their roles respectively as leaders both Lennie James and Alycia Debnam-Carey commented on both the darkness of the show and where that can take them mentally as actors. James commented with a laugh, “I was a badass long before this show!” But he did admit to suffering through some very vivid dreams explaining, “A couple of times, my wife has had to leave the bed and go someplace else to sleep because I’m actually fighting zombies. It’s a little bit scary but it’s a mindset you have to be in, a place you have to go to to do our show.”
Debnam-Carey reveals that her character of Alicia “defines herself as a fighter” and that she has had to “choose between sinking further into darkness and then somehow finding hope and light”. When talking about whether or not the two of them would ever fight for the top leadership position, James tells us, “They are both kind of reluctant leaders. Morgan feels himself to be a really good number two and Alicia, to a certain extent, doesn’t realize just how powerful and how strong and how smart she may well be and the two of them together can help each other get to that place which will benefit the group. If they succeed, they succeed together and if they fail, they fail together.”
Chambliss went on to add, “We are constantly striving to change what Fear is and reinvent it, so just as soon as everyone thinks they’ve figured out what we’re doing, we change things up and that’s gonna continue through season five. There’ll be a big change at the end of season five.”
“Fear the Walking Dead” returns Sunday, August 11th at 9/8c on AMC.
