Fear TWD Showrunner Teases Crossover With an “Iconic” Walking Dead Character

Fear the Walking Dead isn’t blowing smoke: showrunner Ian Goldberg teases an untold story crossing over with an “iconic character” from The Walking Dead. Season 5 of the Texas-set Fear hints that Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) once crossed paths with Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) of The Walking Dead, a cigar-chomping military man from Houston. When Daniel offers the use of a well-stocked warehouse to Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) and his group of survivors in the Season 5 episode “Skidmark,” Daniel tells the group to help themselves to everything but a friend’s cigar — to smoke “when things get better.”

“One of my favorite [Easter eggs] actually goes back to Season 5,” Goldberg said during a TWDUniverse live stream on Twitch. “It’s with Daniel when we were in his warehouse, I believe it was Episode 504, and he takes out a cigar. A very particular cigar that he has not smoked, that he’s saving for a special occasion.”

“If you look at the brand of that cigar, it may be the exact same brand of cigar that an iconic character from The Walking Dead smoked,” added Goldberg, hinting it’s the same Dona Maria brand of cigar that Abraham smokes in The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 6, “Always Accountable.”

“If you want to extrapolate that maybe there was a story there at one point, you could extrapolate that,” Goldberg teased. “It’s more of a Scott Gimple [Walking Dead Universe chief content officer] question because it’s a big universe, and there’s a lot of cool stories that can be told on Fear and across other shows and shows yet to come. So there will be more Easter eggs that we set up in Season 7 that we will both pay off on Fear and could also live elsewhere in the universe.”

Fear first referenced Abraham in the Season 4 episode “No One’s Gone.” Among the possessions of video journalist Althea (Maggie Grace) is a taped interview labeled “Abe/Doctor,” referencing Abraham and his traveling companion: “Doctor” Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt).

The story between Daniel and Abraham could unfold in Tales of the Walking Dead, the Gimple-created anthology spin-off series that will tell new stories with past characters who have died. Cudlitz strongly hinted at Abraham’s return to the Walking Dead Universe in 2019, saying on Strahan and Sara that the franchise is developing projects that will “go back in time, go forward in time,” and “pair up characters that weren’t necessarily paired up in the graphic novels.”

A premiere date has not been set for Tales, which remains in development at AMC Networks. Daniel Salazar returns when Season 7 of Fear the Walking Dead premieres later in 2021 on AMC.

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