Fear the Walking Dead’s fifth season was by far the worst-reviewed of the series. Despite some strong episodes throughout, a substantial amount fans were left scratching their heads after the finale (see: Alicia painting trees). But don’t worry, Chief Content Officer Scott Gimple says he’s playing the long game.
“We’ve been lucky enough on that show to be able to do these long-range plans,” Gimple told Entertainment Weekly. “Season 5 was about setting up this journey that these characters are on through there to season 6, and I think people are going to see the relationship between those two seasons. I think even getting to the very end of season 5, the last few moments, really informing that whole season about reaching for benevolence and reaching for sweetness and art and just life and how in the circumstances they’re in, it didn’t work, and how we leave a person that put that forward isolated, alone, bleeding in a dead town.”
To prove his point, Gimple compared Season 5 of Fear to Season 2 of The Walking Dead, which was panned at the time and praised now. “Season 2 (of The Walking Dead), when we did it, we were assailed in a lot of ways. ‘Why are they on the farm? Why are doing this? Why are they doing that?’ I think in subsequent years, people watching that season had different takes. This season 5 as a piece setting up season 6 into a truly serialized entertainment, I think people might see the relationship and the journey, why the journey went the way it did. I was so happy with the way that everybody did. I think it really did come together in the end in this really tragic way that we couldn’t have gotten to without the journey that we had been on.”
Today, Fear the Walking Dead’s official Twitter account tweeted out confirmation that Dwight’s long lost wife Sherry (Christine Evangelista) would be crossing over to Fear in Season 6 (see below). Their caption reads, “Is this a dream or a reunion?” Whether it’s a dream or not, Sherry’s return should excite loyal fans of the franchise.
Catch the rest of the interview over at Entertainment Weekly. What do YOU hope to see in the new season of Fear? Are you OK with Season 5 just being set-up? Let us know your thoughts below.
Gimple is the worst thing to happen to both franchises. Let Angela Kang have creative direction over both. She’s not perfect but she brought TWD back from the brink of death.
Thats funny…I dont remember in season 2 of TWD that Rick and Carl magically knowing how to fly airplanes, fix airplanes, being able to put a plane together out of scrap parts, being able to survive a plane crash, fly a hot air balloon, being able to scale a mountain….ect…
It’s absurd to suggest that it’s okay to have a horrible dip in quality for 16 episodes – more if you count the lacklustre S4B as well – just to set up a story for our characters in S6.
First of all, the season further killed any character development that the series was one rich in focusing on. Secondly, they made characters do the dumbest things just to advance a plot no one was interested in, except the people in the writers room apparently.
You can have slower paced storytelling if it truly drives character development to set up further character development. But that’s simply not what happened. The story they told was a baseless, asinine byproduct of their lack of originality and character driven storytelling.
Why risk pissing off so many fans to the point that you’re entire season has lost millions of viewers, pissed off fans and critics alike, to set up a story that people may not tune into? That is just Some backpedaling bullshit. The season was shit because the writers don’t have a clue. And to suggest they’ve reset the show to be unique from the parent show is also ridiculous, as the show is more like the worse seasons of TWD than it ever was before Gimple got his hands on Fear.
Why not simply try to tell the best stories that you can tell and just push yourselves as writers to continually better yourselves and the show instead of saying it’s okay to waste a year or more turning the audience against you so you can tell a story that now only 1/4 of your audience is willing to return for. It’s downright stupid.