Fear the Walking Dead (season 8)

The eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead, an American horror-drama television series on AMC, premiered on May 14, 2023, and will conclude on November 19, 2023, consisting of twelve episodes. The series is a companion series to The Walking Dead, which is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The executive producers are Kirkman, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero, Gale Anne Hurd, Scott M. Gimple, Michael E. Satrazemis, Andrew Chambliss, and Ian B. Goldberg, with Chambliss and Goldberg as showrunners for their fifth and final season.

Fear the Walking Dead
Season 8
Promotional poster
Starring
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes7
Release
Original networkAMC
Original releaseMay 14, 2023 (2023-05-14) –
present
Season chronology

The season takes place seven years after the previous season and has the characters living on the island known as "PADRE".[1]

Cast

The eighth season features ten actors receiving main cast billing status, with all but one of them returning from the seventh season. This was the first season not to include Alycia Debnam-Carey, Mo Collins, Alexa Nisenson, Colby Hollman and Keith Carradine, who were all credited as main cast members in previous seasons. Kim Dickens and Daniel Sharman rejoin as a series regular after the former guest starred in the previous season and having last been a regular in the fourth season; while the latter last appeared as a regular in the third season.[2]

Lennie James (Morgan Jones), Kim Dickens (Madison Clark), and Colman Domingo (Victor Strand)
Danay García (Luciana Galvez), Austin Amelio (Dwight), and Karen David (Grace Mukherjee)
Christine Evangelista (Sherry), Jenna Elfman (June Dorie), and Rubén Blades (Daniel Salazar)

Main cast
Main article: List of Fear the Walking Dead characters
  • Lennie James as Morgan Jones / "Nightingale": A pragmatic man, formerly a part of Rick Grimes' group on The Walking Dead, whose adopted daughter was captured by PADRE, which forced him to work for the organization.
  • Kim Dickens as Madison Clark / "Lark": A cunning and domineering former high school guidance counselor, and mother of Nick and Alicia. She was recruited by PADRE following her presumed death and now is imprisoned at PADRE's island after rebelling.
  • Colman Domingo as Victor Strand / "Anton": A smart and sophisticated conman-turned-businessman who formed friendships with Madison and Alicia. He is the reformed former leader of the Tower who disappeared when Morgan's group was captured by PADRE.
  • Danay García as Luciana Galvez
  • Austin Amelio as Dwight / "Red Kite": A reformed former lieutenant of the Saviors, who was exiled from Virginia by Rick Grimes' group on The Walking Dead and eventually reunited with his wife, Sherry. He is now working for PADRE where their son, Finch, was born.
  • Karen David as Grace Mukherjee / "Heron": A woman who used to work at a nuclear power plant that melted down and was in a relationship with Morgan Jones, with whom she has an adopted daughter, Mo. She is now working for PADRE, maintaining its radio communication.
  • Christine Evangelista as Sherry / "Starling": Dwight's wife who fled across the country to Texas after escaping the Saviors. She is now working for PADRE where their son, Finch, was born.
  • Jenna Elfman as June Dorie / "Blue Jay": A kind and distrustful nurse who was married to John Dorie. She is now living alone, hiding from PADRE.
  • Rubén Blades as Daniel Salazar: A courageous and ruthlessly pragmatic former Sombra Negra member who is leading a resistance movement against PADRE.
  • Daniel Sharman as Troy Otto: The charismatic and impulsive son of Jeremiah Otto, who survived his apparent death at the end of the third season.[3]

Supporting cast
  • Maya Eshet as Sam Krennick / "Shrike": The ruthless co-leader of PADRE alongside her brother, Ben.
  • Zoey Merchant as Morgan "Mo" / "Wren": Morgan and Grace's adopted daughter who was kidnapped by PADRE when she was one-year-old and has been trained as a warrior.
  • Jayla Walton as Odessa Sanderson / "Dove": A prefect at PADRE who acts as Mo's tutor. She is the daughter of Ava Sanderson, who Madison encountered in the previous season.
  • Gavin Warren as "Finch": Dwight and Sherry's son.
  • Daniel Rashid as Ben Krennick / "Crane": The cunning co-leader of PADRE alongside his sister, Sam.
  • Isha Blaaker as Frank: Strand's German husband and Klaus' father.
  • Julian Grey as Klaus: Frank's son and Strand's adopted son.

Guest cast
  • Jonathan Medina as Adrian: A member of Daniel's resistance movement whose daughter was kidnapped by PADRE.
  • Michael B. Silver as Major General Krennick: Sam and Ben's father who is a high-ranking officer in the U.S. military during the early days of the apocalypse.

Episodes
See also: List of Fear the Walking Dead episodes
No.
overall		No. in
season		Title [4]Directed byWritten byOriginal air date [5]U.S. viewers
(millions)
1021"Remember What They Took from You"Michael E. SatrazemisIan Goldberg & Andrew ChamblissMay 14, 2023 (2023-05-14)0.56[6]
Taken to PADRE, an island off the coast of Georgia, Morgan and Madison overpower several guards and rescue Mo. Seven years later, a suicidal Madison is imprisoned for her role in Mo's escape. Learning about Madison, a young girl named Wren attempts to enlist her help for training to take part in PADRE's future, but Madison discovers she is actually Mo, and has been brainwashed by PADRE. They escape the island and encounter Morgan, now working for PADRE, who believes that Mo is safer on the island. Morgan leads them to a houseboat in a walker-infested swamp, where Mo finds references to Morgan's past life. Under attack by walkers, Morgan admits a similar attack seven years ago caused him to give Mo up to PADRE for her safety. Grace arrives and rescues the group, but Morgan and Grace reluctantly decide to turn Mo back over to PADRE. Now disillusioned with PADRE, Mo begs her parents to flee with her, but they refuse. Madison is taken back into custody, while Morgan is fired out of fear he will eventually choose Mo over PADRE. Back on the island, Mo claims to have learned her lesson and resumes her training with newfound confidence.
1032"Blue Jay"Heather CappieloAndrew Chambliss & Ian GoldbergMay 21, 2023 (2023-05-21)0.47[7]
June, living alone in the wilderness, attacks PADRE Collectors and cuts off their trigger fingers. She meets a desperate father, Adrian, who is searching for his daughter, Hannah. During an ambush, June discovers Dwight, Sherry and their son Finch, who has appendicitis and needs surgery. June reluctantly agrees to help and takes them to an abandoned lab. Joined by Adrian, June admits she performed experiments with radiation to find a cure to bite infections after having deduced that Alicia survived due to her previous exposure. However, the radiation levels were fatal to her test subjects, causing June to abandon her research. After finding Hannah amongst the test subjects, a devastated Adrian allows himself to be devoured rather than live without her. June saves Finch and decides to flee PADRE with Dwight and Sherry. They are caught by Shrike, who cuts off June's trigger finger and has Finch bitten by an undead Adrian in order to motivate June to resume working on a cure. Elsewhere, Morgan admits his guilt over something he didn't do in his past is holding him back in his relationship with Mo. Madison helps Morgan escape, remaining behind and ordering him to go fix whatever it is.
1043"Odessa"Ron UnderwoodAndrew Chambliss & Ian GoldbergMay 28, 2023 (2023-05-28)0.47[8]
Twelve years earlier, General Krennick of the U.S. Army prepares to distribute supplies PADRE stockpiled to rebuild civilization. Walkers overrun the shipyard and Krennick is killed. He implores his children Sam and Ben to continue PADRE's mission. In the present, with June's treatment having been successful on Finch, Shrike prepares to experiment on Madison. Suspicious of Finch's fate, Mo and Dove find the train and create a distraction, allowing June to overpower Shrike. The group Adrian was part of, led by Daniel, eventually captures them. Daniel, having been abandoned by PADRE, reveals he organized a group of parents into a resistance movement to rescue their kids. With Shrike as a hostage, Madison, June and Dove return to the island and confront PADRE, who is revealed to be Ben. After losing their father, Shrike and Ben restructured PADRE to protect children from the pain of losing their parents while simultaneously working to rebuild the world. Dove turns on Madison after learning she is actually Odessa Sanderson and her mother died in Louisiana because Madison convinced her that she could rescue her daughter. Daniel rescues Madison and June, and vows to find Morgan. Shrike returns to the shipyard and tells Ben they will clear out the walkers and begin their expansion, as their father intended.
1054"King County"Kenneth RequaIan Goldberg & Andrew ChamblissJune 4, 2023 (2023-06-04)0.46[9]
Morgan returns to King County, Georgia on a quest to put down his zombified son, Duane. Grace and Mo follow him, as well as Dwight and Sherry, who were forced into hunting Morgan by Shrike. Morgan reveals his wife, Jenny, bit Duane after he couldn't bring himself to put her down when he had the chance. Morgan and Grace are eventually captured and forced to show Shrike's forces that they are telling the truth about Morgan's mission, but they find no sign of Duane. Dwight and Sherry kill the guards with them, unwilling to allow Morgan to be executed, and help Finch escape from Shrike's captivity. Left alone, Grace confesses to Morgan that she is terminally ill from radiation sickness. While trying to escape from Morgan's burning house, Mo discovers her father chained up Duane in the attic years before during his period of insanity. With Mo in danger, Morgan is finally able to shoot Duane with the gun that Rick Grimes had left for him and buries Jenny and Duane's bodies. Shortly thereafter, a walker bites Grace, and Morgan vows to get her to June for help.
1065"More Time Than You Know"Heather CappieloDavid Johnson & Calaya Michelle StallworthJune 11, 2023 (2023-06-11)0.55[10]
Morgan enters a race against time to get Grace to the train car and June for treatment. Resigned to her fate, Grace tries to get her family to accept the inevitable and enjoy the time she has left. Shrike offers Morgan a deal where she'll help him in exchange for Morgan clearing out the shipyard, but Morgan, Daniel and the others decline when they learn it has to be done by hand. Meanwhile, Finch becomes sick as his own infection returns, the treatment only having a temporary effect due to June not using enough radiation out of the fear it would kill him. Morgan finally accepts Grace's fate, but Mo goes against her parents' wishes and takes Grace to the train car. Although June guides Mo through the treatment, it fails to work and Grace dies. Mo is unable to put down Grace, who reanimates. Morgan arrives in time to save Mo from a zombified Grace, and Mo decides to re-join PADRE as a way of escaping from her pain. Shrike locks Morgan in the train car surrounded by a herd as she, Mo and the others prepare to attack the walkers at the shipyard.
1076"All I See Is Red"Michael E. SatrazemisAndrew Chambliss & Ian GoldbergJune 18, 2023 (2023-06-18)0.46[11]
Descending back into periodic insanity after losing Grace, Morgan escapes from the train car and teams up with Madison and Daniel's group to stop PADRE'S expansion. Having been outmatched by the walkers at the shipyard, Mo and the Prefects lead them into the swamps towards Morgan's houseboat, but Shrike knows her father carries the coordinates PADRE needs. After attacking his allies, Morgan ends up trapped with Mo at the houseboat. He helps Mo escape before being rescued by Madison. As Shrike prepares to kill them, Krennick crawls out of the swamp and bites her; Madison puts Krennick down and takes the coordinates. Ben and the Prefects surrender following an impassioned plea by Madison, Morgan and Daniel. At the request of a dying Finch, June allows Ben to euthanize Shrike and banishes him from PADRE. After burying Finch and knowing they only bring pain to each other, Dwight and Sherry decide to end their relationship for good. Finally at peace with his losses, Morgan buries Grace by Eastman's cabin[lower-alpha 1] and decides to return to Alexandria with Mo to find Rick Grimes. As Madison rebuilds PADRE into its original purpose, an unknown survivor, in possession of Strand's sunglasses and Alicia's prosthetic arm, is shown to be listening to her broadcast.
1087"Anton"Danay GarcíaNazrin Choudhury & Justin BoydOctober 22, 2023 (2023-10-22)0.54[12]
On the run from a hostile group, Madison takes shelter in a friendly hotel community run by Victor Strand who is now going by the name Anton, has adopted a son named Klaus, with his husband Frank, and hides his past. When the other group comes searching for Madison, frightened of his past coming back to haunt him, Strand tries to turn her over to them, but Klaus helps Madison to escape and convinces his father to help. Hiding from a herd, Strand explains that after leaving Texas, he and several others washed up in Georgia, but they rejected his help due to Strand's tyrannical past, leading to their deaths of starvation. Remorseful for his actions and wanting to live up to Alicia's request to become a better man, Strand reinvented himself as Anton, the man that he wants to be. Madison, Strand and his people are captured by the hostile group who are revealed to be led, much to Madison and Strand's shock, by Troy Otto who had supposedly died several years ago at Madison's hands. Having survived blinded in one eye, Troy seeks revenge on Madison and to take PADRE for his people, exposing Madison and Strand's secrets to Strand's people. Before Troy can harm anyone, the group is rescued by Daniel, June, Sherry and several others and Madison takes Strand's people back to PADRE. Before they leave, Troy claims to have killed Alicia Clark and left her to reanimate, providing Madison with Alicia's prosthetic arm as proof of his claims.
1098"Iron Tiger"TBATBAOctober 29, 2023 (2023-10-29)TBD
1109"Sanctuary"TBATBANovember 5, 2023 (2023-11-05)TBD
11110"Keeping Her Alive"TBATBANovember 12, 2023 (2023-11-12)TBD
11211"Fighting Like You"TBATBANovember 19, 2023 (2023-11-19)TBD
11312"The Road Ahead"TBATBANovember 19, 2023 (2023-11-19)TBD

Production

The series was renewed for an eighth season in December 2021. Upon the renewal announcement, it was confirmed that Kim Dickens, who played the lead character during the first four seasons, would rejoin the series as a regular for the eighth season after first returning as a guest star for the seventh season.[13][14] In January 2023, it was confirmed the eighth season would be its last and would consist of 12 episodes split into two six-episode parts.[15]

Production for the eighth season moved from Texas to Savannah, Georgia.[16] In April 2022, co-showrunner Andrew Chambliss said they were in the planning stages of the season.[17] The final season began filming in August 2022[18] and concluded in March 2023.[19] For the final season, Colman Domingo is credited as a producer.[20] The sixth episode of the season marks the final appearance of Morgan Jones portrayed by Lennie James, whose character originally debuted in the pilot episode of The Walking Dead which aired in 2010.[21] In July 2023, it was confirmed that Daniel Sharman would reprise his role as Troy Otto in the second half of the season. His character was presumably killed off at the end of the third season.[3] Danay García directed an episode of the series, making her the fourth cast member to direct an episode.[22]

Release

The season premiered on May 14, 2023, on AMC, with each episode available three days early via AMC+.[23] The second half of the season premiered on October 22, 2023,[24] with the finale set for November 19.[5]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a rating of 60% based on 5 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10.[4]

Notes
  1. As shown in The Walking Dead episode "Here's Not Here".

References
  1. Ross, Dalton (May 14, 2023). "Fear the Walking Dead showrunners explain that big premiere time jump". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  2. "AMC Networks Announces Premiere Timing for New Series in "The Walking Dead" Universe and Reveals First Look at "Fear the Walking Dead's" Eighth and Final Season" (Press release). AMC. January 10, 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2023 – via The Futon Critic.
  3. Bonomolo, Cameron (July 23, 2023). "Fear the Walking Dead Brings Back Daniel Sharman's Troy Otto". Comicbook.com. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  4. "Fear the Walking Dead (2023)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
  5. "Shows A-Z – fear the walking dead on amc". The Futon Critic. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  6. Metcalf, Mitch (May 16, 2023). "ShowBuzzDaily's Sunday 5.14.2023 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  7. Salem, Mitch (May 23, 2023). "ShowBuzzDaily's Sunday 5.21.2023 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
  8. Metcalf, Mitch (May 31, 2023). "ShowBuzzDaily's Sunday 5.28.2023 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  9. Metcalf, Mitch (June 6, 2023). "ShowBuzzDaily's Sunday 6.4.2023 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  10. Salem, Mitch (June 13, 2023). "ShowBuzzDaily's Sunday 6.11.2023 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
  11. Metcalf, Mitch (June 21, 2023). "ShowBuzzDaily's Sunday 6.18.2023 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  12. "Fear the Walking Dead: Season Eight Ratings". TV Series Finale. October 24, 2023. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  13. Mason, Charlie (December 5, 2021). "Fear TWD Renewed for Season 8 — With Kim Dickens Returning as Madison". TVLine. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  14. Andreeva, Nellie (December 5, 2021). "'Fear the Walking Dead' Renewed For Season 8, Kim Dickens Returns As Series Regular". Deadline. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  15. Otterson, Joe (January 10, 2023). "'Fear the Walking Dead' to End With Season 8 at AMC". Variety. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  16. Bonomolo, Cameron (November 11, 2021). "Fear the Walking Dead Leaving Texas for Georgia". ComicBook.com. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  17. Zalben, Alex (April 20, 2022). "'Fear the Walking Dead' Stars, EP on Moving the Show to Georgia in Season 8". Decider. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  18. Bonomolo, Cameron (August 9, 2022). "Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Starts Filming". ComicBook.com. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  19. Zinski, Dan (March 11, 2023). "Fear The Walking Dead Stars Say Farewell In BTS Images As Season 8 Wraps". Screen Rant. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  20. Hansen, Renne (March 3, 2023). "Fear the Walking Dead season 8 wrapping according to Colman Domingo". Undead Walking. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  21. Zalben, Alex (June 18, 2023). "Lennie James Exits 'Fear The Walking Dead' in Mid-Season Finale: "Yeah, I'm Done"". Decider. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  22. Ross, Dalton (September 21, 2023). "How Fear the Walking Dead got a 'karmically correct' series finale". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  23. Bonomolo, Cameron (May 10, 2023). "How to Watch Fear the Walking Dead's Season 8 Premiere Early". ComicBook. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  24. Devore, Britta (July 21, 2023). "'Fear the Walking Dead' Sets Return Date for Final Season". Collider. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
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