How Fear TWD Recreated The Walking Dead’s Sanctuary

[Spoiler alert for Sunday’s “Sanctuary” episode of Fear the Walking Dead.] The Sanctuary was destroyed. Then it was rebuilt. And then it was destroyed again. This week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead followed Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) as they returned to the original home of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors, which eventually fell and was abandoned back in season 9 of The Walking Dead. As we found out on “Sanctuary,” Dwight and Sherry’s old haunt was later taken over by marauder Marty (Alex Morf) and his squatters… only to be overrun and demolished by an invading zombie horde.

In reality, the Sanctuary set — which was built where the survivors’ prison once stood —was long ago torn down to construct the town of the Commonwealth in The Walking Dead season 11. So when season 8 of Fear required a set that no longer exists, the filmmakers had to build a replica Sanctuary. And they did it in a week’s time.

“Recreating the Sanctuary was one of the tallest orders we’ve ever done on the show,” co-showrunner Ian Goldberg said on AMC+’s Fear TWD: Episode Insider. “Every department needing to be on top of their game to take this iconic location from The Walking Dead and recreate it on a scale that we could for this episode. It was incredibly exciting to see how they were able to pull that off.”

More than seven years have passed since Dwight and Sherry stepped foot into the Sanctuary, and both times, it was to help someone in need of life-saving medical treatment. After providing shelter for residents of the Kingdom during a blizzard, the Sanctuary was abandoned by the few remaining Saviors and left to rot. Marty and his marauders holed up in the dilapidated remains of the former Sanctuary, which ultimately collapsed when a walker herd pressed against the weakened walls.

In the end, Dwight and Sherry — along with June (Jenna Elfman) and an injured Odessa (Jayla Walton) — survive the fall of the Sanctuary insidethe very same furnace where Negan burned Dwight’s face with an iron.

“It was so surreal to see the [reconstructed] Sanctuary set for the first time,” said Evangelista, who last appeared on season 7 of The Walking Dead before crossing over to Fear. “It really helps take us back and show the culmination for these characters and where they are now, and having this really cathartic experience here.”

There are just three episodes left of Fear the Walking Dead, airing Sundays on AMC and AMC+.

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