Sorry ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ fans, but despite speculation from fans regarding the announcement of new episodes, with the caption “Who will rise from the ashes?” star Kim Dickens has shot down any hopes that it will be her character, Madison Clark. Dickens was the show’s lead for the first four seasons, but her character was seemingly killed off at the end of Season 4. However, in a move that is unusual for the ‘Walking Dead’ franchise, her death was not shown on screen, leaving her fate ambiguous.
While promoting her new series, ‘Briarpatch’ on the USA Network, during an Instagram live Q&A (via Comicbook.com), Dickens said:
“I think online, they picked up that maybe it was a tease in the trailer that Madison was coming back. But it’s not me, guys. Sorry.”
The core ‘Walking Dead’ series was the #1 show on television at its peak, but ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ did not duplicate that success. The spin-off struggled in the ratings and reportedly Dickens was informed before production on Season 4 began that Madison would be killed off. In her place, Lenny James who played Morgan Jones on the original series was transplanted over and positioned as the lead character on ‘Fear’.
But while ‘Fear’ may not have gotten the same ratings as the core series, it did attract a smaller but passionate fan base and many of those fans hated the treatment of Dickens/Madison and didn’t care for the direction of the show after she was written off.
After leaving the show, Dickens told Movieweb:
“It was the part I’m most proud of. Helping build that show from the beginning, across three different countries, that character was something I felt I had grown my whole career to get to play. I’m so proud of it, and it ended too soon for what I wanted, but there were a lot of changes over there creatively. I can’t imagine they would want to revisit Madison, but she was a great character. I’m so proud of it.”
‘Fear the Walking Dead’ will return this summer on AMC. ‘Briarpatch’ airs on The USA Network on Monday nights.
