Fear The Walking Dead Season 8 Will End The Long-Shuffling Zombie Series
"The Walking Dead" may have ended, but its spin-off trudges on. "Fear the Walking Dead," the series that began as an in-world prequel set in Los Angeles and eventually moved its focus to fan-favorite character Morgan (Lennie James), is set to return this year. It turns out the show's time is limited, though, as AMC announced at its Television Critics Association press tour today that the upcoming season of "Fear the Walking Dead" will also be its last.
Currently seven seasons in, "Fear the Walking Dead" had an impressively long run that covered a wide range of ground and endured a soft reboot after its third season. The show's eighth season is set to be split into two parts, with the first six episodes airing beginning in May while the second set debuts sometime later in the year. When we last checked in with Morgan, he was finally on his way to PADRE, a rumored utopia that the latest finale makes clear is actually anything but. The new season will reportedly follow Morgan, Kim Dickens' back-from-the-dead Madison, and Morgan's adopted daughter, Mo as they endure the "cynical rule" of PADRE on the island they were led to in the last episode.
The show's ending, but The Walking Dead universe isn't
The news of the end of "Fear The Walking Dead" comes amidst announcements about several other shows set in the universe of "The Walking Dead," so while this chapter is set to close, others will be just getting started.
Maggie, Negan, Daryl, Rick, and Michonne are all getting spin-off series set in new locations. Norman Reedus' Daryl is headed (rather inexplicably) to France for "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon," while Lauren Cohan's Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan end up in Manhattan in "The Walking Dead: Dead City." It's unclear as of yet just where Rick and Michonne's spinoff will take place, but the network calls it "a romantic saga of the dangerous road to each other, and the road they must find with each other."
Recent streaming era woes have hit AMC
In the meantime, though, "The Walking Dead" chief content officer Scott Gimple says the final season of "Fear the Walking Dead" will be "one of its most vibrant, inventive, exciting seasons ever." Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios, has also shared his enthusiasm for the show's conclusion, saying, "It's a truly exciting year for The Walking Dead Universe, as we conclude an epic journey on 'Fear the Walking Dead,' which became one of the most successful shows in the history of cable television." While the flagship series "The Walking Dead" was always the more attention-grabbing show of the two, its spinoff did break records, becoming the highest-rated first season in cable history when it debuted in 2015, according to Variety.
Though it seems natural for "Fear the Walking Dead" to wind down after eight seasons, it's also worth noting that AMC is generally tightening its pursestrings after the company announced that the streaming era had not been as lucrative as expected. "It was our belief that cord cutting losses would be offset by gains in streaming," MSG Entertainment CEO James Dolan said in a memo in late November, per IndieWire. "This has not been the case." Dolan said that AMC Networks would need to "undergo significant cutbacks," including layoffs and "cuts to every operating area of AMC Networks." There's no word on whether these cutbacks impacted "Fear the Walking Dead," or if its season eight ending was pre-planned. Either way, the series will return with the first half of its final season on Sunday, May 14 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+.