Former ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Star Believes Show ‘Died’ in Season 3

Former Fear The Walking Dead star Lisandra Tena, who played short-lived Gonzalez Dam leader Lola in the show’s third season, backed a message published by a Fear-centric Twitter account saying the original show “died.”

The message, published by the now-defunct Fear TWD Source — a Twitter account providing the “latest news and updates” concerning the Walking Dead spinoff — dubbed the semi-rebooted Season Four “a completely different show,” pointing to the death of Kim Dickens‘ Madison Clark as reason for abandoning the account.

“It’s not a secret that we’ve been hating this crossover since the moment it was announced. We still chose to be here for the cast that we love so much, but after what they did to Kim we will no longer support ‘Fear,’” the message reads.

“We love our [Original Gangsters] — Alycia [Debnam-Carey], Colman [Domingo] and also Danay [García] to death, but this account is called ‘FearSource’ for a reason, and since the show we loved so much died, the reason for us to keep running FS died with it.”

The message adds original co-creator and three-season showrunner Dave Erickson, Dickens, and the original cast “deserved better.” In a reply to the tweeted message, Tena wrote “agreed,” prefaced with the sobbing emoji.

Fear returned for its fourth season in April with a much talked-about crossover, bringing The Walking Dead veteran Morgan (Lennie James) to the spinoff. That episode pulled in 4.090 million viewers (per Nielsen), dropping 25% to 3.066 million viewers for 402.

The mid-season finale — which killed off longtime series lead Madison — pulled in 2.320 million viewers. Last Sunday’s mid-season premiere, the first episode in the wake of Madison’s death, brought in 1.878 million viewers, dropping 19%.

Fear‘s mid-season return reached number one in the top 25 original cable shows among adults aged 18—49, per TV By the Numbers, scoring a 0.7 in the coveted demographic. AMC Networks renewed the series for a fifth season last month.

Some fans expressed outrage following Madison’s death, and others reacted poorly when it was learned James would receive top-billing on the series moving forward.

Erickson inked a new development deal with AMC and left the series last March. Former five-season Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple, promoted to Chief Content Officer for the entire Walking Dead brand, assumed an executive producer role on Fear and former Once Upon a Time showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg were installed as new Season Four showrunners.

Chambliss and Goldberg defended the decision to kill Madison, saying her death came as a means of exploring the left-behind survivors’ journeys from hopelessness to again finding hope as inspired by Madison’s legacy.

Dickens admitted to EW she was left “shocked and disappointed and heartbroken” to learn going into Season Four the series intended to kill Madison.

“I have loved this character, I’ve loved playing this character, I’ve loved this show, and I’m so proud to have been a strong female empowered lead of a genre show,” Dickens said, adding it was “such an honor” to portray a middle-aged mother and female leader.

“I also thought there was so many more stories to tell and so many more places to go, so I was initially shocked and disappointed and heartbroken.”

Madison’s death came just episodes after son Nick (Frank Dillane) was shot and killed following Dillane’s request to leave the series.

Fear has since inducted franchise newcomers John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt), Althea (Maggie Grace) and June (Jenna Elfman) as core cast members alongside the last-surviving Clark, Alicia (Debnam-Carey), Strand (Domingo), and Nick’s former girlfriend Luciana (García).

Fear The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.