Future ‘Walking Dead’ Crossovers Will Tie the Two Shows Together and Bring Back Past Characters

Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple says different breeds of coming crossovers will continue to tether The Walking Dead and spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, with smaller crossovers coming by way of revisiting characters from the past.

"It's a rare thing," Gimple told press at WonderCon when asked if more Walking Dead characters will follow Morgan (Lennie James) and Dwight (Austin Amelio) to Fear. "It's not gonna happen like this a lot. But I will say there are different sorts of crossovers we are going to do to tie the shows together, tie the universe together in certain ways that have to do with the greater happenings in the world."

Beyond hinted ties to Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) surfacing in the first half of Fear the Walking Dead Season Five, audiences could in the future see smaller crossovers:

"In telling stories of the past we might see characters interact, or just see those characters we've not seen in a while," Gimple teased.

One such mini-crossover is possible through video journalist Althea (Maggie Grace), who in Season Four of Fear was shown to be in possession of a tape marked "Abe / Doctor," referencing The Walking Dead's Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) and Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt).

"When Madison (Kim Dickens) is rummaging through Al's tapes, we see they're all labeled," showrunner Ian Goldberg said on Talking Dead when confirming the tape as an Easter egg. "And each of those tapes, each of those labels, will tell a story. They're all stories that Al has captured at one point or another in her travels, and if you look closely, some of those names might ring a bell if you're a fan of the Walking Dead universe, you might get excited about some of the stories that she's captured."

Those tapes happen to be a driving force of the next season of Fear as Morgan and company embark on a mission to locate and help strangers in need, guided by Althea's cherished cache of interviews.

Walking Dead star-turned-director Cudlitz, who later hinted Abe could be revived in flashback, has since strongly suggested he'll resurface in TWDUniverse, telling Strahan and Sara his return is "very, very possible."

"[The Walking Dead] has sort of laid out in its history is through flashbacks and origin stories. There's still characters on the show that were very close with Abraham that he had history with. We could very easily go back," Cudlitz said. "They're also doing other movies that are gonna move in time, go back in time, go forward in time, and I believe pair up characters that weren't necessarily paired up in the graphic novels."

It was previously rumored a film teaming Abraham and Fear's long-missing Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades), who returns in the spinoff's upcoming fifth season after sitting out Season Four, is in early stages of development.

As previously reported by ComicBook.com, future character crossovers remain possible even with dead characters, who could reappear in either series or in any of the currently undefined projects in the works under Gimple, who is now developing a series of movies starring Rick Grimes alongside specials, series, and other digital content set within the expanding TWDUniverse.

Even as the mothership series and the spinoff grow further intertwined, a merger of the two shows has long ago been shut down. Fear showrunners Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss ruled out a merger while star Jenna Elfman, who plays June, said in December the mixing between series is more focused on "expansion rather than consolidation."

James previously offered a similar answer when asked about the possibility of the two shows becoming one.

"Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? I would have to vote no on that one," James said. "I don't see the point in that. I think it's more likely that the universe would expand more rather than reduce itself back down to just one show."

Fear the Walking Dead Season Five launches Sunday, June 2 on AMC. The Walking Dead Season Ten is due out in October.

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