Fear The Walking Dead is coming back for the eighth season and when the show returns, it will be bringing a thought-to-be-dead character with it. Ahead of the next season airing, Kim Dickens will be making a return to the popular AMC show as Madison Clark in season 7 and then will be a series regular the following year.
Dickens left Fear The Walking Dead several years ago after the showrunners decided to write out Madison, but the way her character left the regular rotation left some questions about her final fate. Madison hasn't been seen since season 4 and the other characters in the show have long assumed she was dead. In some regards, the handling of Madison is very similar to what The Walking Dead did with Rick Grimes. Of course, Rick is never going to appear in the television show again, whereas Madison is on her way back.
AMC announced on Monday that Fear The Walking Dead was officially renewed for Season 8 almost a year to the day when The Walking Dead spinoff got season 7 guaranteed. The network also announced that Dickens will be making her official return during the back half of the current season 7. The show is currently on its winter hiatus and will return on April 17. Once Dickens is back on the show, she'll be sticking around for what could be the series' final season.
Dickens' return to the show will be at the same time that the group of survivors who Fear The Walking Dead fans have gotten to know will be at odds with one another. The back half of season 7 will pick up seven months after the nuclear blast and will show Victor Strand as a kind of warlord who is doling out who will live and die. Meanwhile, Madison's daughter Alycia is trying to scrape together a living while being plagued by a mysterious sickness.
Dickens, who might be best known for her role of Joanie Stubbs on HBO's Deadwood, is having her return to Fear The Walking Dead celebrated by AMC execs. Scott Gimple, who started off as a writer on The Walking Dead and has risen to the ranks of Chief Content Officer, said that Dickens would be put on Mt. Deadmore if it existed.
As for Fear The Walking Dead, it's not clear just how long the show will run. With other The Walking Dead projects in the works, AMC might want a bit of a reset by moving onto other stories.
Fear The Walking Dead season 7 returns on AMC on April 17, 2022.
Source: AMC