Fear the Walking Dead’s Final Season Writers Revealed

Showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg will be handling writing duties for many of the final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, the show the duo reinvented each year since taking over from series co-creator Dave Erickson in Season 4. As part of its presentation at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, AMC announced that the first Walking Dead spin-off will end with its upcoming season after eight years and 113 episodes. Coming just months after the November 2022 series finale of The Walking Dead, the 12-episode eighth and final season of Fear will be split into two parts, beginning with the first block of six episodes on May 14th on AMC and AMC+.

Chambliss and Goldberg co-wrote the May 14th final season premiere and episodes 802, 804, 805, and 808, according to Writers Guild of America West records. Other writers include David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Fear Seasons 6 and 7 co-executive producer Nazrin Choudhury, and Season 7 newcomers Calaya Michelle Stallworth and Justin Boyd. The revealed writing credits so far are: 

• Episode 801: Written by Ian Goldberg & Andrew Chambliss
• Episode 802: Written by Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg
• Episode 803: TBA
• Episode 804: Written by Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg
• Episode 805: Written by Ian Goldberg & Andrew Chambliss
• Episode 806: Written by Nazrin Choudhury & Justin Boyd
• Episode 807: Written by David Johnson & Calaya Michelle Stallworth
• Episode 808: Written by Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg
• Episode 809: TBA
• Episode 810: TBA
• Episode 811: TBA
• Episode 812 (Series Finale): TBA

Showrunning duo Chambliss and Goldberg have co-written 20 episodes of Fear, including the Season 4 episodes “What’s Your Story?,” bringing over Morgan Jones (Lennie James) in a crossover with The Walking Dead, and “No One’s Gone,” which appeared to kill off original series lead Madison Clark (Kim Dickens). Their credits include Season 6 episode “The Door,” notable for the death of John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt); the series’ 100th episode, “Amina,” marking the departure of Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey); and the Season 7 finale, titled “Gone,” where it was revealed Madison survived her apparent death.

David Johnson, who has penned such films as DC’s Aquaman and The Conjuring 2, is a veteran of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.Johnson’s most recent credits on Fear are the Season 6 episodes “The Key” and “Handle With Care” (with Ashley Cardiff), as well as the Season 7 episodes “Breathe With Me” (with Choudhury), “Ofelia” (with Alex Delyle), and “Divine Providence” (with Delyle).

Choudhury has served as series co-executive producer and writer since Season 6, penning the episodes “Welcome to the Club,” “In Dreams” (with Chambliss and Goldberg), “USS Pennsylvania” (with Nick Bernardone), as well as Season 7’s “Mourning Cloak” (with Stallworth) and “The Raft” (with Bernardone). Outside of the TWD Universe, Choudhury’s credits include episodes of The Omen spin-off series Damien, M. Night Shyamalan’s Wayward Pines, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Blood & Treasure.

Stallworth, a staff writer on Netflix’s short-lived zombie dramedy Daybreak, and Boyd, an executive story editor on Netflix’s post-apocalyptic fantasy series Sweet Tooth, each joined Fear in its seventh season. In addition to co-writing “Mourning Cloak” with Choudhury, Stallworth co-wrote “Reclamation,” the exit episode for Althea (Maggie Grace). Boyd’s credits as co-writer include “Till Death” (with Cardiff) and “Sonny Boy” (with Jacob Pinion), which sent off John Dorie Sr. (Keith Carradine). 

After setting Season 7 against the backdrop of the nuclear-zombie apocalypse, Chambliss and Goldberg have described Season 8 as another “reinvention”: a final season synopsis revealed a seven-year time jump will age-up Morgan’s daughter, Mo (Zoey Merchant), with the island-dwelling survivors living under PADRE’s cynical rule.

“We always talk about doing reinventions on the show every season. This will be one of the biggest reinventions we’ve done,” Goldberg previously told EW. “We’ll be introducing PADRE, and kind of seeing that for what it is, removing the location. But the circumstances in which we find the characters is, we hope, going to be very surprising for everyone. It’s a big change.”

Fear the Walking Dead: The Final Season premieres Sunday, May 14th, on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @NewsOfTheDead for more TWD Universe coverage.