‘Fear the Walking Dead’s Austin Amelio on the Dynamic Between Dwight and Morgan

Newest Fear the Walking Dead star Austin Amelio hopes Morgan (Lennie James) is able to look beyond Dwight’s past as an enemy Savior when the two cross paths in The Walking Dead spinoff’s fifth season.

“I have no idea. I really don’t,” Amelio said Friday at Wizard World New Orleans when asked how a meeting will play out between the two following Dwight’s cross-country trek.

“I know that both of our stories, there’s redemptive qualities to where we’re going and what we want to give back into the world. I know he’s aware of me. We haven’t met. We haven’t worked across from each other on The Walking Dead. Hopefully, there’s a little putting the past behind.”

Dwight, who renounced leader Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and switched sides to help Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and company overthrow the Saviors, is now seeking both disappeared wife Sherry (Christine Evangelista) and his own redemption.

That journey could align him with Morgan’s newfound mission to track down and help strangers in need, guided by the extensive collection of tapes recorded by Althea (Maggie Grace).

The themes would then be a natural extension of the overarching story for Fear Season Four, which ended with half the group healing from the death of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and vowing to find their own redemption by fulfilling the benefactor duties first set into motion by trucker Polar Bear (Stephen Henderson) and his network of like-minded do-gooders.

“The idea for where we wanted to end all of these characters, we had it at the beginning of the season. We knew we were telling a story about them going from a dark and hopeless place to a place of hope,” co-showrunner Andrew Chambliss previously told THR.

“More than that, we wanted to get them to a place where they could spread that philosophy and that idea. They wanted to make up for all of the bad things they did. They wanted to have a mission that would allow them to achieve their redemption.”

Using a factory as a base, Morgan and crew — including Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and gentle gunslinger John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt) — are now spurred by a renewed sense of hope as they aim to rescue the needy.

“The final moments of the [Season Four finale], where they’re driving out into the world to find other people who were like them at the beginning of the season — in need of help, both physical and emotional — that was something we had from the very beginning,” Chambliss said.

“The details surrounding that were what we worked on as we developed the season.”

The idea of hope as an “emotional through line” carrying throughout the season will continue on through Season Five, added co-showrunner Ian Goldberg, who noted this past season was always driving towards the survivors “making hope part of their mission and their reason to exist in this part of the world.”

“It’s a shared mission statement they’re all galvanized behind. It’s going to continue in season five. It’s not going to be easy for them,” Goldberg said.

“As Strand says, ‘Where are we going to find these people? They’re in short supply.’ Their efforts to help might not always go smoothly, but they’re all united behind the shared mission. That’s the canvas we’re playing with in season five.

“There will be more introspection and looking inward for these characters. They will see that even though they have found a noble mission in helping the people of this world, the next step of their mission is learning how to live. What do we do beyond our mission? What do we do beyond survival? How do we live our lives in this world?”

Fear the Walking Dead Season Five will premiere later this year on AMC.