Fear the Walking Dead Star Colby Minifie Reveals Backstory Behind New Villain Virginia

Fear the Walking Dead new addition Colby Minifie (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Boys) reveals a peek into the backstory of Virginia, a.k.a “Ginny,” the leader of the Pioneers who established herself as a clear danger when she ordered the murders of Logan (Matt Frewer) and his crew before threatening the lives of John (Garret Dillahunt), June (Jenna Elfman) and the rest of their convoy. The survivors were only spared when Luciana (Danay García) offered to produce the fuel Virginia’s seemingly expansive operation desperately requires to enact their grand plans — ambitions that may or may not be connected to the shadowy CRM organization behind mysterious abductions.

“Virginia is a utilitarian. She only cares that the most number of people survive and thrive under her leadership. Before the apocalypse, she was an efficiency expert,” Minifie shared with the AMC blog. “She was hired to assess what was redundant in a company and eliminate jobs that weren’t necessary. She does the same thing post-apocalypse, but ‘elimination’ means something a little different… She is really good at finding what someone has to offer to benefit the whole community… She comes from a corporate climate where there is a clear chain of command — and in this world, she is the CEO.”

Virginia has already eliminated Logan — calling him and his crew “non-essentials” — and she’s since attempted to broker a deal with Morgan (Lennie James) and Al (Maggie Grace), who turned down her offer for partnership. Their reasoning was simple: the Pioneers kill, and Morgan’s crew doesn’t.

Despite these differences in philosophies, the seemingly affable Virginia insists their goals are the same.

“Virginia is just trying to help as many people as she possibly can. She wants to rebuild a sense of community, structure and cooperation in a world imploded by chaos. She has an incredible imagination to be able to pull off what she has accomplished when we meet her in Episode 513,” Minifie said. “She has a large number of people who support her… She believes they need a leader that everyone can rally around to keep the community from crumbling. And she is damn good at what she does. Yeah, she loves it up there at the top of the pecking order.”

That pecking order is one Virginia hopes to grow with the addition of Morgan and his people.

“Virginia wants to have as many people in her jurisdiction as possible: the more people, the more skills they have to share, the stronger the community, the more they can grow it into a world that looks like what they used to enjoy,” Minifie explained. “Morgan’s team… each have a skill that is vital to her community. June is a super talented nurse, Dorie and Alicia are skilled walker killers, Sarah and Wendell have trucking experience, and the list goes on. The whole group is also inclined to help others, which is hard to find in the apocalypse and useful to any community. The bottom line is, Morgan’s party has survived for a long time out on the road, which is impressive, and Virginia has a hard time knowing any group of survivors is out there and not part of her team — especially such a skilled and talented squad.”

Playing Virginia, who next causes more trouble for the survivors in the penultimate episode of Season 5, is “so damn fun,” Minifie said. “I love playing Virginia. It’s just a delight to play a bad ass who uses flowery language. She has a deep well of history for me to imagine. The exploration never stops with a character like her.”

Fear the Walking Dead airs “Channel 5” Sunday, September 22 at 9/8c on AMC.