Exclusive Interview: FEAR THE WALKING DEAD Showrunner Dave Erickson Talks Season 2 and What’s to Come in Season 3

Fear The Walking Dead recently concluded its second season with a phenomenal and ferocious two-episode finale that pulled no punches emotionally and physically. With season 2 officially in the books, Daily Dead had the chance to talk with showrunner / executive producer / writer Dave Erickson about the tragic end of one character's story arc, the altered relationships and mindsets of those who survived season 2, the potential return of familiar faces in season 3, and whether or not we'll see another companion web series like Flight 462 airing throughout The Walking Dead Season 7. *Spoiler warning for those who haven't finished watching Fear The Walking Dead Season 2.*

Bravo on a stunning season 2 finale. Those were two of the most intense, well-made episodes, not only of Fear the Walking Dead, but in The Walking Dead universe as a whole. In this second half of the season, the writers and Kim Dickens have peeled back more layers of Madison, and yet it feels like there's still a lot of mystery with her character, too. Can we expect to see even more of the real Madison and what she's capable of in season 3?

Dave Erickson: Yeah, Madison, the reason characters respond to her—I'm thinking of Strand and Daniel Salazar—is that they recognize there's an element of her that's willing to do whatever is necessary in the protection of her family, but we've eluded to a darker past. It's a past that's made her a lot more versatile in this new world, and as we move into season 3, that will be thrown into sharp relief. We'll continue to get a better sense of who she was, not just before the apocalypse or before she had her children, but before she met Steve, her first husband, before she met Travis. We'll start to get more information and a better understanding of her moving forward, absolutely.

That's one of the most intriguing aspects of the show and another one is Alicia and Madison's relationship. Madisn had to put her relationship with Alicia on the back burner so many times because of chasing after Nick and dealing with all of his problems, but after having that time at the hotel, they just feel closer than they ever were before. But now that Madison has her sights set on Nick again, can we expect some more turbulence in the relationship moving forward, or are they overall in a better place than they have been before?

Dave Erickson: Overall they're in a better place. The back half of the season and the time alone between mother and daughter, it allowed Alicia a bit more time to grow and become something of an ally to her mother in addition to getting a better understanding of why Madison seemed to protect Nick more, why Madison in some regard, seemed to love Nick more. She now has a better appreciation and understanding of why that was. She also sees that her mother has been holding a very painful secret for years. There's an empathy that goes with that. She has matured, and in so doing, she has become a lot closer to her mother. That's not going to go away.

The decision to leave the hotel and pursue Nick was ultimately something that was Alicia's idea. Alicia was the one who stepped up and said, "We're not going to actually let them throw out Travis. We need to hold onto the people that we do love, and the people that are the closest to us." That includes Nick. She's actually at a point where she now has a confidence, if that makes sense, just because she better understands why. Nick is not a challenge to her, a challenge for her mother's love anymore, and that has given her a sense of purpose, in some respects. There will be some trouble, and there'll be conflict between them as before, but it is the apocalypse.

Absolutely. It's to be expected. I love how the first half of the season you were on the water, and you were at Baja Studios where they shot Titanic, and then this season, the back half, you headed out for the desert. You were on land. Just looking back at this back half of season 2, what accomplishments are you the most proud of, and do you have any favorite memories that stand out from the second half of the season in particular?

Dave Erickson: From a story perspective, when we moved into the second half, we wanted to do two things. We wanted to slow things down a little bit, and by that I mean we're fracturing the narrative, and fracturing the family allowed us to focus a bit more and bear down on some of those characters and the character dynamics between them. You even just spoke to one. The Madison/Alicia relationship was drawn into much sharper relief, which was good for the show and good for the narrative. That makes me happy. Ultimately where the show lives and breathes is in that highly dysfunctional blended family, and the more we can mine that, the better off we are. We saw a lot of development with Madison and Alicia.

We also saw a lot of changes and growth, not necessarily in a good way with Travis in the loss of Chris. Nick is somebody who arrives at the Colonia in [episode] 208 in a somewhat strangely idealistic fashion. Somebody who seems incredibly hopeful, and who's looking for some level of spirituality that may of may not exist, and he's a guy who literally arrives with the dead, and then departs the season with the living, and we see what that gets him, for a guy who has been somewhat selfish over the past few years. Nick abandoned the family before, and the fact that he left at the end of [episode 207] was not necessarily new for Madison. It's not the first time that he's taken off, but Nick has grown up a considerable amount, and for the brief moment that he thought he was bringing something good to these people in Luciana, he's now been really knocked back a few steps. He's going to have to rebound from that going into season 3.

I like where all the characters are at. Alicia, she's now taken a life, which was the one thing Madison never wanted her to do, or never expected she would do. It's fine for her, it's fine for Travis, it's somewhat expected with Nick, and the idea that Alicia has now crossed that line in defending Travis, it shatters them a little bit, and in some respects, we will find out that it bonds Madison and Alicia even more, tragically.

You touched upon the huge moment when Brandon and Derek tell Travis about the truck accident and then killing Chris, which leads to Travis snapping. Is there any potential that they were twisting the truth? Can you confirm that that was a cold, hard fact, and that this is the world that Travis is living in right now?

Dave Erickson: That is indeed what happened, and sadly it's the world Travis is living in. Lorenzo [James Henrie] did wonderful work over the past two seasons, and that character really was put through the wringer, and that was, to a certain degree, to also put the father through the wringer. We always wanted to get to a place with Travis where he had to abandon his moral compass once and for all. He had to surrender his humanity in a way that he was refusing to do. The only way to get him there was to put him through this arc where he loses everything. He made a promise to Liza that he was going to protect Chris, and he has effectively failed to do that.

The argument Chris made in [episodes] [2]10–[2]13 was valid. In a strange way, Chris had finally found a place, he'd finally found people, in this world especially, who recognized who he was, and appreciated who he was, and didn't see him as an outsider. For this alienated kid, which he was during and prior to the apocalypse, that was actually a good thing for him. It made him feel like he had arrived in some strange way. Travis let him go, and the dark truth is that Travis found that if he had been able to do to Brandon and Derek in episode [2]13 what he did to them in [2]14, his son would probably be alive. That's something that that character now has to live with moving forward.

Another character I'm really interested to see moving forward is Strand, who is in a really interesting place right now. He told Madison that since the death of [Thomas] Abigail, he's been in a really dark place. He lost that hope. Now he's staying behind at the hotel after helping them escape. With Strand now in a community, is there the potential for him to maybe rise up the ranks, and do what he does best and influence people with his convincing methods? Is there anything you can tease about his potential future there?

Dave Erickson: He's a guy who's been stabbed fairly recently, so in a practical sense, he's not ready to hit the road yet, and he's staying in a place where there is water, there is food, there is relative safety. What we want to see with Strand, he has gone through a mourning period, absolutely, after the loss of Thomas. He's not a huge fan of Travis. I mean, Travis did take off on him. I don't think Travis is a huge fan of Strand, to be honest. The idea that they were going to leave with Travis was genuinely upsetting to Strand, and he was not ready to leave, and he thought that they were embarking on something of a suicide mission. The practical, pragmatic Strand didn't want anything to do with that. We are going to see the return of the con artist Strand. He's about to find his rhythm. When he told Madison that he was going to be okay, he meant it, and what we'll come to see in season 3 is that he's now thinking several steps ahead, and he definitely has his own agenda. Strand will return to himself.

I'm excited to see that. Colman Domingo is doing some of the best work on TV right now. One of the things that continually impresses me about this show and what you've done with the first two seasons is the attention to detail that you've done with your world-building. You've introduced a wide range of characters in the first two seasons. We've seen Jack and the modern-day pirates, Alex from Flight 462, who eventually joined the pirates, and of course Rubén Blades' character, Daniel Salazar, who may have survived that fire at Celia's compound. You have all of these amazing characters that are potentially out there somewhere. As you move forward into season 3, is there a possibility that we could start to see the return of some familiar faces, as well as some new characters?

Dave Erickson: One of the things we're angling towards going into season 3 is it will be very much our border season, telling stories just north and south of the border, and seeing how those interact. My hope is there's a world in which we see the return of Daniel Salazar. I feel like there are certain characters that are out there. They're in play. They're definitely not dead. I think Alex is alive. I think Jack is alive. It's nice, in a way, because it means, as we continue to break, we could break season three, if there are opportunities to bring more characters into the fold, we can do that.

One of the challenges for us is that since we did fracture the narrative as we did, the primary challenge is to bring some of our family back together, but do that as organically as possible. It's really a picking and choosing process. You can only cross so many characters in one season before it starts to strain credibility. That will be the main narrative test for us, is when do we feel like we're adding so much that it's ultimately subtracting from the story?

I really enjoyed the Flight 462 companion web series. Do you have any webisodes or anything like that planned for season 3?

Dave Erickson: There may be something playing in season 7 of The Walking Dead, which will speak to some of the elements in the new border world we'll be dealing with. Stay tuned.

How much of season 3 do you have mapped out at this point, and is there anything that you can tease about the cultures or settings that we'll see in season 3?

Dave Erickson: The writers' room is about six weeks into the break of season 3, so we have a lot more detail work in the first half of the season, and then we've got some arcs and mile markers going into the back half. That's all moving ahead quite well. We see some of the elements, the militia group, that group that confronts Nick and Luciana and company when they get to the border at the end of 215, they will definitely be a factor moving into season 3. The character that Ofelia bumps into on the border, he will fold back over probably into the group that Nick confronts. We're taking some of the northern elements that we haven't seen, and starting to thread that back in, so that will be a factor. Then we'll be meeting some new people in Tijuana.