‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Alum Garret Dillahunt Opens up About His Exit (Exclusive)

Fear the Walking Dead alum Garret Dillahunt only recently ended his run on the hit AMC horror series and during a conversation with PopCulture the actor got candid about his exit from the series, admitting he was looking forward to other projects. “I might have been anxious to do other things […] so I’m grateful to them,” he said, adding how the producers allowed him to move on. “Just a great bunch of people.” Editor’s note: spoilers lie ahead for Fear the Walking Dead.

Dillahunt played John Dorie on Seasons 4 to 6 of Fear the Walking Dead. Dorie is a lonely but kind gunslinging former cop who Lennie James‘ Morgan Jones meets. In Episode 8, Season 6, John is murdered by Dakota (Zoe Colletti), and then later turns into a zombie but put down by his wife, June (Jenna Elfman). Referring to his characters ending, Dillahunt explained that he “didn’t get to choose how [he] went, that’s for sure,” but went on to praise his castmates.

“I was great working with Jenna Elfman. She a great actress and a really wonderful scene partner. I really love Lennie James — Austin, I mean. I’m just gonna name them all because they’re really cool people,” he laughed.

Dillahunt explained how he “wanted to get on the show originally” because his friend and former Deadwood co-star Kim Dickens was on it. Dickens was the main star of Fear the Walking Dead for the first four seasons, playing Madison Clark. “A lot of Deadwood people ended up on [the show]” Dillahunt noted, citing former co-stars Dayton Callie and Ray McKinnon, who both also appeared in Deadwood and Fear the Walking Dead.

“It’s a great bunch of people in front of and behind the camera,” Dillahunt said. “I will always cherish my time on that show and all the stuff it gave me. I don’t think I’d be doing the things I’m doing right now if it weren’t for [Fear the Walking Dead].”

One of those “things” that Dillahunt got to do is the brand new Zack Snyder movie, Army of the Dead, which debuted Friday on Netflix. “This was great fun,” he said of filming the new movie. “Really excited that Zack’s not afraid to kind of rethink very popular, almost trope-ish, genres. There’s expectations about zombies, and he’s gonna break ’em all and it kind of feels like high time. Why can’t they be this way? It’s all made up.” Dillahunt added that he “just can’t wait for people to see it.”