Fear the Walking Dead’s Colman Domingo on Strand Spinoff: “Why Not?”

“Why not?” actor Colman Domingo says of the tentatively titled Strand, the Victor Strand spinoff he’s pitched at AMC. The Fear the Walking Dead star is now a producer on the TWD Universe spinoff where Strand, cunning conman turned lord of his own post-apocalyptic fiefdom, is the reigning villain at war with former allies Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Morgan Jones (Lennie James). As AMC Networks readies flagship offshoots starring Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride (the untitled Daryl & Carol series) and Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (the just-greenlit Isle of the Dead), the Euphoria star says his shifty survivor could be spun off in Strand:

“What I loved about Victor, he’s like a cat with nine lives,” Domingo told PopCulture.com of the role he’s played since 2015. “He keeps evolving. Every season we’ve made decisions on how unique he is, how different he is, what is his new operating systems. And they keep evolving. So I think he’s an ever-evolving character. And I do think that it’ll be interesting to see him in his own spinoff called Strand. Why not?” 

Domingo previously revealed his pitch for the Strand spinoff, comparing his skilled survivor to “the James Bond of the zombie apocalypse.” 

Though always a character of questionable morality, the formerly selfish schemer tried his hand at altruism under Morgan’s leadership in recent seasons. In Season 7, set in the fallout of the nuclear-zombie apocalypse, Strand has embraced his worst instincts as he lords over a tower at the center of his war with Morgan and Alicia. 

“I really love playing Victor Strand for seven seasons,” Domingo told PopCulture. “And I think that he has just gone down the rabbit’s hole of truly following his own instincts. And his own instincts are part of his survival. And I think that is he has become the villain and the universe because he realizes that’s what he needs to do to survive. So I think I’m still going forward in that way.”

Domingo continued: “And now he’s really being challenged by the person that’s closest to him, Alicia, played by the wonderful Alycia Debnam-Carey. And now there’s a conflict. The conflict is they’re at war with one another, a war that he does not want, but he knows it’s necessary for survival. So I think that it’s really dealing with relationships truly in an apocalyptic world and the decisions that you have to make for your own survival.”

Season 7 of Fear the Walking Dead returns with new episodes Sunday, April 17 on AMC and AMC+. 

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