Everything we know so far about the next season of the zombie apocalypse spin-off.
Main show The Walking Dead may be turning into a walker itself as it prepares to end with season 11, but the franchise’s first spin-off Fear the Walking Dead is still going strong.
Season seven looks to be a new beginning for the show after cult leader brought about “The End” by detonating nuclear warheads across Texas.
The long-suffering survivors just can’t catch a break, as now the outside air is more deadly than any walker – how will Morgan, Alicia and co deal with a second apocalypse?
We won’t have to wait long to find out however, with a confirmed release date not too far away and two gloomy teaser clips available to whet our appetite.
Here’s everything we know about Fear the Walking Dead season seven.
Fear the Walking Dead season 7 release date
Fear the Walking Dead season 7 will premiere in the UK on AMC at 2am on Monday 18th October 2021.
Episodes are simulcast with the US transmission, where the show airs on Sunday evenings.
However, UK fans can also catch a repeat later that day at the much more reasonable time of 9pm.
Ahead of the season six finale, a teaser confirmed the seventh instalment will air this autumn.
The upcoming run was first confirmed back in December 2020, with a tweet from the official account reading “The past is dead… but the future is bright. #FearTWD is coming back for a 7th season.”
The past is dead… but the future is bright. #FearTWD is coming back for a 7th season. pic.twitter.com/6oX8uF10Wy
— FearTWD (@FearTWD) December 3, 2020
In April 2021 it was revealed that production on the new season had got underway, with the official count tweeting, “And we’re back! #FearTWD Season 7 has started production!”
Alongside the caption was a picture of a clapperboard that revealed Ron Underwood would be directing an episode – returning after previously helming instalments in both the fifth and sixth seasons.
Fear The Walking Dead season 7 cast
Most of the big names will return for the next run, so expect to see more of Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark, Colman Domingo as Victor Strand and Danay Garcia as Luciana.
Debnam-Carey will not just be working in front of the camera however – as she’ll also be directing an episode, following in the footsteps of fellow co-stars-turned-directors such as Colman Domingo and Lennie James.
Other names in line for a return include Maggie Grace, Garret Dillahunt, Alexa Nisenson, Jenna Elfman, Austin Amelio, Ruben Blades and Karen David, along with the notable return of Sydney Lemon as CRM helicopter pilot Isabelle after two seasons away from the show.
First look photos show many of the cast back in action:
FIRST LOOK NEW PHOTOS from Season 7 of #FearTWD featuring Sherry, Dwight, Sarah, Luciana, Strand, Althea, and Daniel! pic.twitter.com/jd64zVu4sF
— The Walking Dead World (@TWalkingDWorld) August 17, 2021
Some new faces are in the mix also – Dickinson‘s Gus Halper will be playing a mysterious character called Will.
Fear the Walking Dead season 7 plot
Season six ended in explosive fashion – quite literally, as Teddy fired a missile containing ten warheads set to detonate around Texas.
Jenna Elfman had previously said ahead of the finale that “every character is going to be hit by impacts of life that truly change them, that will launch us into season seven” – and she wasn’t wrong, with much of the group now living in bunkers and having to adapt to a post-blast Texas.
Several characters such as Morgan and Grace cannot venture outside now without wearing gas masks and makeshift hazmat suits – not the best environment to raise a baby then…
Shortly after the finale aired, showrunner Ian Goldberg revealed that the anthology format of season six would be returning in the upcoming season.
“I can say that we were very excited about the new form the show took in the anthology format in season six, with telling more concentrated characters’ stories,” Goldberg told Entertainment Weekly. “That will continue into season seven. We will continue to tell the show in that structure, and in that format.
“That excites us, because like in season six, we’re going to get to see a variety of different kinds of stories, different tones, different worlds within the episodes themselves, and we’ve been really happy with how that’s been going so far. Look forward to sharing it.”
Goldberg also teased at more references to The Walking Dead mothership, after a Dona Maria cigar owned by Daniel Salazar hinted at an untold crossover story with Abraham Ford from the main show.
Speaking during a TWDUniverse live stream on Twitch, Goldberg said that there will be “more Easter eggs” to come in Fear the Walking Dead that could “live elsewhere in the universe.”
“If you want to extrapolate that maybe there was a story there at one point, you could extrapolate that,” Goldberg said of the potential Daniel/Abraham link.
He added: “It’s more of a Scott Gimple question because it’s a big universe, and there’s a lot of cool stories that can be told on Fear and across other shows, and shows yet to come.”
!["FTWD"]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2020/11/FTWD_600_RG_1123_0088_RT-3fee054.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"FTWD_600_RG_1123_0088_RT\"")
One of those Easter Eggs will be more information on the mysterious CRM, the helicopter-loving group who saved Rick Grimes when the character departed The Walking Dead.
Rick himself will not be appearing in Fear the Walking Dead – we’re still waiting for that spin-off film – but while speaking at Comic-Con @ Home Chief Content Officer Scott Gimple hinted that a few other characters would get very heavily involved in the organisation.
“Each show has a different piece of the puzzle, but those pieces of the puzzle… aren’t just plots, they are personal stories for the characters that do advance aspects of the greater mythology,” Gimple explained. “But the CRM stuff in Fear really has to do with a couple of characters very deeply, and their situation bleeds out to other characters.”
One of those characters will of course be CRM pilot Isabelle, who will be making a dramatic return to the show after two seasons away. Isabelle formed an intense connection with Al during her previous time on the show, so it seems their potential romance will drag Al into the operations of the military organisation also.
“It’s part of a personal and emotional story on this show,” Gimple added. “It just so happens, though, that it does give other info about the greater world [that our survivors] inhabit.”
Fear the Walking Dead season 7 trailer
There has been one very brief trailer, as well as two more substantial first-look clips first revealed at Comic-Con.
Prepare for the fallout. #FearTWD returns October 17th.#TWDWatchParty pic.twitter.com/dBkgaFNqZg
— FearTWD (@FearTWD) August 23, 2021
The first clip sees Morgan and Grace struggling to look after Rachel’s orphaned baby in the submarine – but also gives us a glimpse of the post-blast Texas landscape…
The second clip is far more creepy – seeing June and John Snr. discover Teddy’s secret lair…
Will there be a Fear the Walking Dead season 8?
The Walking Dead mothership may be ending with its upcoming season, but showrunner Ian Goldberg has no plans for Fear the Walking Dead to meet the same fate just yet.
Goldberg told Insider that season 7 “is not the final season, at least as far as we know from AMC. They haven’t told us that.”
“We’re gonna keep telling these stories as long as AMC tells us to keep doing them. Don’t think about saying goodbye yet, we’re sticking around for a while.”
AMC has not yet officially ordered an eighth season of Fear the Walking Dead, but renewal news is not usually announced until the latest season has premiered – season seven was confirmed in December 2020.
Fear The Walking Dead will return on Monday 18th October 2021 and is available to catch up on Amazon Prime Video. You can also check out the best Amazon Prime series and best movies on Amazon Prime, or if you’re looking for more to watch, visit our TV Guide.