The first half of Fear the Walking Dead season 4 came to a close with yet another original cast member saying their goodbye, but while the series is going on its usual hiatus, AMC wants viewers to know it’ll be back before the summer is over. In a new release from the network, the show has already booked an official return date, and the walking dead will be feared once again the second week of August.
Season 4 has been an impressive creative turnaround for the series, shepherded by incoming showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, who replaced series co-creator Dave Erickson after he left the series with an explosive season 3 finale. As such, season 4 has been something of a reboot for the series, bringing in Walking Dead mainstay Lennie James as Morgan, as well as new characters played by Garrett Dillahunt, Maggie Grace, and Jenna Elfman. But it’s also seen the departure of even more of the show’s original cast, first with Frank Dillane’s surprising exit early in the season and then again with [SPOILER] Kim Dickens’ apparent departure in the season 4 midseason finale, ‘No One’s Gone.’
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While the show’s audience processes the events of the midseason finale, AMC was quick to take advantage of the exposure by announcing the show’s return date of August 12, 2018. The announcement also included a statement about where the series is headed in the second half of season 4:
“The first half of season four began with one figure huddled around a campfire, and ended with nine. Characters who started their journeys in isolation collided with each other in unexpected ways and found themselves in one of the last places they ever expected to be...together. In the back half of the season they will explore who they are now – as individuals and as part of the greater group – and how they will forge ahead. They will find themselves pitted against new adversaries – human, walker, and even nature itself. Theirs will be a journey wrought with danger, love, heartbreak, loss, and ultimately, hope.”
Fear the Walking Dead isn’t a complete re-envisioning of the series. In fact, it actually deserves more praise for improving the overall quality of the show without taking it back to formula. While losing so many of the show’s original cast has altered the series’ overall identity, it plays true to the idea that drives both this and The Walking Dead: any character can (and probably will) die. Though the loss of Nick and Madison might not register on the scale of, say, Andrew Lincoln’s departure as Rick Grimes, it’s still a smart creative choice to shake up the series from time to time, as nothing gets a zombie story going like some new blood.
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Fear the Walking Dead season 4 returns on Sunday, August 12 @9pm on AMC.