In the biggest ‘no shit?’ news of the week, the official Twitter account for The Walking Dead has said that the upcoming season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead is going to be “incredible.”
Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? Then again, The Walking Dead franchise has taken a bit of a zombie-appropriate stumble lately with season 8 being greeted with dismal ratings – the worst since the season 2 midseason finale. Fear the Walking Dead has always been a bit of the sideshow to the main feature, with critics savaging its first and second season and things improving a tiny bit for its third outing. So, maybe they’re hoping a bombshell season of the spinoff series can rejuvenate what’s left after the current run of TWD concludes.
Of course, the upcoming season of Fear will also mark the first time that the two shows have directly crossed over, with Lennie James’ Morgan Jones continuing his arc on Fear. Speaking to ComicBook.com about the transfer, the actor said:
“The things that the writers are doing with Morgan and the way that they’re navigating, it’s not really a spoiler alert, but the way that Morgan transitions through the crossover is really, really interesting. The springboard that goes from The Walking Dead to Fear is a real… He goes with some kind of trajectory.
It is a full, well-thought out journey that Morgan goes on. A lot of it is tied to his relationship with Rick. A lot of it is tied to his relationship to this group of people that he feels conflicted about caring for and wanting to protect.”
In addition, James apparently learned of his transfer early into season 8’s production, as he revealed the following:
“I found out quite early on, maybe a month into the shooting of Season 8. Maybe a month, maybe six weeks into it. Scott Gimple gave me a call and asked me to come around and he pitched the possibility and it took a lot of talking.”
To me, this crossover feels like a testing of the waters. If it goes down well, fans can expect the two shows to dovetail a whole lot more over the next few seasons. If it doesn’t, well, then we’re not so sure if Fear will be on the air much longer.
Fear the Walking Dead returns for season 4 in 2018, while The Walking Dead will be back with the second half of season 8 on February 25th, 2018.