‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Star Kim Dickens on Returning to Series for Final Season (Exclusive)

When Fear the Walking Dead premiered in 2015, Kim Dickens played the lead character, Madison Clark, who did anything and everything she could to survive and protect her family. Fans were shocked to see Madison presumably die in Season 4, which paved the way for Lennie James (known as Morgan in The Walking Dead) to take over for Dickens. But Dickens returned to the show at the end of Season 7 and is now a series regular for the eighth and final season. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Dickens who shared her thoughts on being back on Fear the Walking Dead after being away for a few years. 

“I thought, wow, it’s going to be weird going back, or it’s a different state, a different city, and honestly it was just riding a bike,” Dickens exclusively told PopCulture. “As soon as I got my costume on and my props and everything, I’m just in it. I know my motivations, I know who the character is to the core, I feel like, and for me it was just a blast. It was so fun to get to go, so rewarding to get to go back and finish the show with my compadres, with my family, people that truly are my family now. …For me, that closure is a gift for us. And I think it’s reflected in performance. I think it’s reflected in story and I think it will be very satisfying.”

For Season 8, Madison, Morgan and the rest of the crew to adjusting to life on Padre. There is a big time jump, and viewers will learn how the community has impacted everyone. Madison returned for the Season 7 finale, and viewers learned that she has been working for Padre, taking children away from their parents. Madison is also dealing with lung damage after surviving the stadium fire in Season 4. 

The unfortunate thing about Madison’s return is she will not be reunited with her children, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Nick (Frank Dillane). Alicia separated herself from the group at the end of Season 7, and Nick was killed by Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) in Season 4. Now the question is how will Madison’s story end with Season 8 being the final one of the series.

“When I was asked to come back on the show, that initial conversation with the gentlemen, they told me then that season eight would be the final season,” Dickens said. “So I knew that going in, I had time to wrap my head around it and understood the closure that we would be seeking. And like Ruben said, it’s such a gift to run eight seasons and it feels good to be able to tie it up and have some control over it rather than you wrap the season and you find out when you’re on vacation somewhere that you’re not going back the next year and you feel like you didn’t get to, in some ways, tie up stories. So that was a gift.” 

Season 8 of Fear the Walking Dead premieres on May 14 on AMC and AMC+.