‘Fear The Walking Dead’s Colman Domingo on How Madison’s Death Changes Strand

The late Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) showed the sometimes-shady Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) a path towards being a better person, a trajectory he’ll struggle to maintain in the wake of her death, Domingo said during a Facebook Live session hosted by AMC Latin America.

“Honestly, I think that Strand is really in a way, in a way that he hasn’t been in a long time,” Domingo answered when asked how Strand will fare without Madison’s influence.

“Madison showed him his better self, believed in his better self, and helped him believe in that. So he’s been on this path and this trajectory to being good, to being part of a community, to being a bit kinder and gentler, and so I think he’s in conflict right now. So we’ll see how he goes forward.”

The actor hinted at growing closer to longtime ally Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Madison’s daughter, who will similarly struggle in moving forward without her mother, whose loss resulted in both Strand and Alicia devolving into blood-thirsty and revenge-seeking killers.

“I know that Victor and Alicia have had some beginnings of a bond, and maybe that’s a possibility, maybe [with] some of the new characters,” Domingo said.

Debnam-Carey previously told Collider the second half of season 4 is driven by “really interesting” and “unexpected” pairings of characters, which comes at a time when the merged camps of survivors will spend a lot of time apart as a massive storm rolls in.

“We’re in the outdoors a lot, and we’re being separated a bit. You’re getting to know the characters and the more individual storylines, or duos, and that’s exciting,” Domingo said in an AMC making-of featurette.

Dickens will not appear in the back half of season 4, but Madison’s presence will continue to be felt as the characters that knew her move on hoping to fulfill her wishes for them to be better — an attitude Madison imparted after founding the since snuffed-out Dell Diamond baseball stadium community.

“The showrunners and writers knew that it was going to propel our characters in a different way,” Domingo said. “That no matter what, the rest of the season, and probably seasons to come, will be under still the energy and promise of what Madison Clark tried to set up for us.”

Fear The Walking Dead returns to AMC with its mid-season premiere Sunday, August 12.