Fear the Walking Dead Brings Back Daniel Sharman's Troy Otto

No one's gone until they're gone. Daniel Sharman will reprise his role as Troy Otto in the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead, AMC announced in a clip that screened during The Walking Dead Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con. While that footage hasn't been released to watch online, the network confirmed Troy will be back from the dead when the Walking Dead spin-off returns with its final six episodes on October 22nd. (Trailers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live did make their way online after the hour-long Comic-Con panel, which we've recapped here.) 

AMC made Sharman's return official in a video recapping the TWDU panel in 30 seconds. Watch it below:

Sharman played Troy Otto until he was killed off in the "Things Bad Begun" penultimate episode of Fear the Walking Dead season 3. The psychopathic son of border militiaman Jeremiah Otto Sr. (Dayton Callie), he was exiled from Broke Jaw Ranch by his brother Jake (Sam Underwood) and buddied up to Nick Clark (Frank Dillane). After it was revealed that Troy led the walker horde that destroyed the ranch, Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) bludgeoned him with a hammer — seemingly killing him.

But Troy survived. A coda ending the season 8 "All I See Is Red" midseason finale showed a mystery person in possession of Victor Strand's (Colman Domingo) sunglasses and Alicia Clark's (Alycia Debnam-Carey) prosthetic arm as they tuned into a message broadcast by Madison Clark — who also survived her apparent death back in season 4.

"My name is Madison Clark. If you can hear this message, you are in the territory PADRE once patrolled. PADRE has fallen. They are no longer a threat to you or your children," said a Madison voiceover, broadcasting coordinates to reunite parents whose children have been stolen by PADRE. "We will find you. We will do our best to reunite you with your children. We'll make up for all the damage PADRE did to you."

The Troy-Madison reunion won't be a happy one: footage from the upcoming second half of season 8 shows a hammer-wielding Madison lunging at someone who appears to be Troy.

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(Photo: AMC Studios)

"It's such a gigantic task to think about bringing all these stories, all these character journeys, not just to a conclusion, but also bringing them full circle," showrunner Ian Goldberg said on AMC's Inside Fear the Walking Dead Final Season Part 1 special. "When we started to think about, 'Where do we want these characters to end up?' It led to the question of, 'Where did they start?'"

Added showrunner Andrew Chambliss, "We wanted to look back at these characters from their very beginnings on this show and look at who they were back then, and who they were now, and we can see how far they've come."

With Morgan Jones (Lennie James) exiting the series in the season 8A finale, season 8B will circle back to season 3 with Dickens' Madison as series lead.

"The theme that kept coming to the front of our minds was just this idea of family. And it all started with Madison Clark," Chambliss said. "She was this matriarch at the beginning of the apocalypse who always wanted to protect her kids, who wanted to create a world where they could be safe. Who wanted to give them something that really didn't exist anymore. It all kind of boils down to the story — the story we want to tell, the story that we think will bring together all the themes, all the characters, everyone's stories in a way that will feel satisfying. And also feel like it has some real finality to it."

Fear the Walking Dead season 8 returns October 22nd on AMC and AMC+. You can catch up on all eight seasons now on AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

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