Fans of The Walking Dead received major news about the franchise’s first spinoff series. Deadline reports that Fear the Walking Dead co-showrunner Ian Goldberg (The Autopsy of Jane Doe) revealed the first trailer for the show’s eighth and final season today at WonderCon. View the new trailer below.
According to Deadline, Fear the Walking Dead is set to premiere on May, 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. The series, which was set as prequel to the mothership show, debuted in 2015 and followed the early days of the zombie outbreak on the West Coast. The series centers on Kim Dicken’s (The Good Nurse) Madison, a guidance counselor and single mother of two who finds herself coming face-to-face with the reality of a crippling apocalyptic event. Throughout the series, the cast has included Lennie James (Line of Duty), Colman Domingo (Euphoria), Alycia Debnam-Carey (The 100), Frank Dillane (The Essex Serpent), Cliff Curtis (Avatar: The Way of Water), and Ruben Blades (Safe House).
Goldberg, joined by Dickens and fellow cast members, Jenna Elfman (Dharma and Greg) and Christine Evangelista (The Arrangement), discussed the show’s final season, via Deadline. The biggest scoop attendees received was that season eight would take place seven years after the events of the previous season and include the reveal of the mysterious island known as Padre.
“We’re going to see a lot of life inside of PADRE, which we’ve been teasing since season 7, Goldberg said via Deadline. “We really wanted to lean into what life looks like inside this place we’ve heard so much about. We’re going to do it in a conceptual way [by] jumping ahead seven years. So when we find our characters, a lot of time has passed, and we see how they’ve navigated their new realities. It’s a whole new ball game. It doesn’t get any easier for them.”
Goldberg described the story will pick up with James’s Morgan and Madison failing to rescue Mo, Morgan’s daughter, from Padre, via Deadline. Now inhabitants, Morgan and Madison will have to find a sliver of grit and hope to complete their mission and escape the treacherous island once and for all.
“It feels surreal; it’s amazing to be making season 8 of this show, and only because, at this point, everybody knows that this will be our final season,” Goldberg said via Deadline. “Thank you so much; you are the best fans in the world, we made this show for you, and we’re so honored that we’ve been able to tell these stories for such a long time.”
Fear the Walking Dead is the second proper series in the franchise to come to an end. The original The Walking Dead aired its final season last year. However, the universe’s stories will continue with multiple projects on the horizon. This June, TWD: Dead City premieres with Jeffery Dean Morgan (Watchmen) and Lauren Cohen (Whiskey Cavalier) reprising their roles as Negan and Maggie, respectively. And fan-favorite character Daryl Dixon, played by Norman Reedus, has his own series launching later this year. Finally, Andrew Lincoln (Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities) and Danai Gurira (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) will make their final appearances as Rick Grimes and Michonne in series that was originally set as a feature film trilogy.
Fear the Walking Dead will launch its first set of six episodes on May 14, with the second half of six episodes airing later this year.