Alycia Debnam-Carey on ‘Tough’ ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Season 4 Changes

Fear the Walking Dead showing a huge turnover in cast and crew throughout Season Four has been both challenging and exciting for Alycia Debnam-Carey.

Debnam-Carey joined Fear the Walking Dead in its first season. At 21 years old, the Australian actress was portraying high school student Alicia Clark forced to take on the apocalypse. At the time of the pilot, Debnam-Carey was starring with Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, Cliff Curtis, Lorenzo Henrie, and Mercedes Mason. Heading into the mid-Season Four premiere just over one week ago, Debnam-Carey’s name is the only one from that list which remains.

“It was a really, really tough season for many reasons,” Debnam-Carey told Comicbook.com of the changes. “It was so rewarding and seeing, especially [Episode 4×10], come to life from what we achieved. I mean it was so special making it but to able to see the work we all put in, that was really tough one for all of us. For the crew, for the cast, for the post-production, all combined. It was a really special episode and it is rewarding.”

Episode 4×10, which exclusively starred Debnam-Carey and Alexa Nicenson as their Alicia and Charlie characters were trapped during a hurricane, put the actress at the spotlight. It specifically called back to the recent losses of Alicia’s family member, Nick and Madison, as they were played by Dillane and Dickens, respectively.

“For obviously many reasons, this season was difficult, it was difficult and it was different,” Debnam-Carey said. “We moved to another location we had a cast change, we lost a lot of people, we’ve change the tone of it, the show. And it was just a lot of changes but I think it’s also opened up the possibility of the show to continue and grow and keep changing and I’m excited for that because what I’ve always wanted out of the show was freedom for it to be able to change.”

In fact, where Fear‘s older sibling The Walking Dead is all but forced to find roots in its comic book source material, the younger show has free reign for creative surprises. “It’s not grounded in any comic book, it’s not grounded in any expectation of what it’s supposed to be, and so I really like that freedom,” Debnam-Carey said. “I think now that we have those growing pains out of the way, we finally have the opportunity to just relish and enjoy the show that we now have, which is different.”

Moving forward through the back half of Season Four, Fear the Walking Dead will truly define itself and its future with a slew of new cast members including The Walking Dead‘s Lennie James. “It’s the start of a kind of new chapter for this show,” Debnam-Carey said. “It was definitely tricky. Everyone was great and we all wanted to make this work for one another and everyone’s been supportive of each other and we all know we have each other and we’re so lucky to be a part of something that people watch.”

With the recent announcement that Fear the Walking Dead was renewed for a fifth season, it looks like fans will have the opportunity to continue watching. “We now will really get to sink our teeth into it,” Debnam-Carey notes. “We can enjoy this new part of it.”

The Walking Dead will return for its ninth season in the fall. Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC, and returned for the second half of its fourth season on Aug. 12. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.