‘The Walking Dead’ Story Continues in ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 5

The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead will be closer linked when Season Five of the spinoff furthers a story first seen on the flagship series, says chief content officer Scott Gimple.

Asked at WonderCon if the two shows would ever pit their respective survivors against a common enemy shared between both series, Gimple offered an enticing tease:

"This season, I wouldn't classify it as an enemy, but there will be this — beyond Austin [Amelio] — this very interesting commonality, this story strand that's gonna be furthered on this show that started on The Walking Dead," Gimple said. "And who knows where it will go? But that's the thing on tap right now."

"And then, into our 30th or 40th year," Gimple joked, "really gonna see a lot more crossover."

That thread hinted at by Gimple could be ties to the far-reaching group responsible for the disappearance of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who was saved-slash-abducted by Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) before the midway point in The Walking Dead Season Nine, which has since jumped six years ahead of Fear.

Gimple first revealed Fear's blossoming ties to the wider Walking Dead Universe during a recent appearance on the Talking Dead season finale, when he promised 2020 will emerge as a "bananas" year for the franchise:

"Fear the Walking Dead is coming up in June, and there is a story in the first half of the season that has to do with one of these greater stories of the universe that will bring in some of the things that all of you guys have seen before, and it will expand it out just a little bit more, and then we'll have an announcement," Gimple said.

When elaborating on that breadcrumb at WonderCon, Gimple said the new season tells a "beautiful, and action-packed, and hilarious, and sad, and explosive kind of story that actually has to do a lot with one of the characters here, but very much a great deal having to do with another peek into the greater universe of The Walking Dead."

That unidentified character then finds themselves at the center of "some of the things that have been going on on this show and on The Walking Dead," Gimple said.

As the architect of the Walking Dead Universe and the scribe of the upcoming Rick Grimes movies, Gimple is almost definitely hinting the helicopter community will play some kind of role in Fear Season Five: that plot thread was abandoned on The Walking Dead after being used to write out Lincoln, whose movie franchise will next explore the mysteries behind the group and their "A" and "B" human classification system.

It's also a story that quietly unfolded for years, as far back as The Walking Dead Season Seven, long before it was learned Lincoln was exiting the mothership series.

Amelio boards Fear after his character, former Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) underling Dwight, was banished from the Virginia settlements by Daryl (Norman Reedus) in The Walking Dead Season Eight. The star is the second Walking Dead alum to join the spinoff, following new series lead Lennie James, whose Morgan was at the center of the first-ever crossover between the two shows.

Dwight reaching Fear is just one of "different sorts of crossovers" planned for the Walking Dead Universe to "tie the shows together, tie the universe together in certain ways that have to do with the greater happenings in the world," Gimple said at WonderCon when revealing the future return of past characters.

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

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