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Is Fear the Walking Dead a continuation of The Walking Dead?

Renee Hansen
Renee Hansen

Undead Walking

- Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 7, Episode 15 - Photo Credit: Lauren "Lo" Smith/AMC

The Walking Dead has several new spinoff series currently in production that will continue the stories of many characters featured in this series. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) will star in The Walking Dead: Dead City, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) will star in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) in Summit. Fear the Walking Dead, the franchise’s first spinoff, is set in the same world but tells an entirely different story.

Fear the Walking Dead
Kim Dickens as Madison Clark, Cliff Curtis as Travis Manawa – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 3, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Michael Desmond/AMC

Fear the Walking Dead will premiere its eighth and final season on AMC on May 14, 2023. The series began airing in 2015 and started at the beginning of the outbreak. Set in Los Angeles, Fear TWD introduces a different cast and follows them as they acclimate to life in an apocalypse overrun with the undead.

The first three seasons focused on the dysfunctional family comprised of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), her two children Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Nick (Frank Dilanne), with her fiance Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) and his son Chris (Lorenzo Henrie) and Travis’ ex-wife Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez). They are joined by the Salazar family, Daniel (Rubén Blades), his wife Grizelda (Patricia Reyes Spíndola), and their daughter Ofelia (Mercedes Mason). They would also meet Victor Strand (Colman Domingo).

Fear the Walking Dead season 4

Walking Dead
Lennie James as Morgan – Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 – Photo Credit: Lauren ‘Lo’ Smith/AMC

During season 4, the series would see new showrunners, Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, take the lead, and the series would switch focus. This season would mark the assumed death of Madison and see Morgan Jones (Lennie James) from The Walking Dead crossover to this storyline.

The other direct connection to TWD is that Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) also crossover to Fear the Walking Dead. 

Fear the Walking Dead’s story would eventually settle in Texas until season 7. During that time, a nuclear bomb would be detonated, making for a double apocalypse, and life was quite difficult for the survivors. In season 8, the story will again see a change in location as filming moved from Austin, Texas, to Savannah, Georgia.

So, while The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead are set in the same world, Fear TWD is its own series. The two shows are quite different; not everyone is a fan of both series because of the differences. Viewers can’t watch Fear TWD expecting to see a duplicate of TWD series.

The eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead will release in two parts beginning May 14, 2023. Sometime during this season, the story will experience a seven-year time jump.

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Renee Hansen

Renee Hansen

Renee Hansen, a contributing writer for Undead Walking, joined the Fansided family in 2019. She has written for numerous sites, including Netflix Life, Winter is Coming, Show Snob, Audio Phix, and Stairway to 11. She covers a wide range of pop culture topics, from horror, zombies, and romantic comedies to music and period dramas. Renee has also conducted interviews with many notable figures, including Lennie James, Steven Ogg, Tom Payne, Josh Hamilton, Carrie Genzel, Cooper Andrews, Dan Fogler, and Vince Neil. She has also hosted panels at various events, such as The Camp Events and Atlanta Comic Convention. When not writing, Renee enjoys watching new TV and movie releases, revisiting 80s movies, or rewatching The Walking Dead.