Fear the Walking Dead Showrunner: Door Not Closed on Possible Madison Clark Return

No one's gone until they're gone — or until the Fear the Walking Dead showrunners say Madison Clark is gone. Season 6 sparked theories it was Madison (Kim Dickens) who was the mystery medic behind Morgan's (Lennie James) survival after a cliffhanger last season, but that was revealed to be Dakota (Zoe Colletti). A late Season 6 episode titled "Mother" reunited Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) with old friends thought dead since Season 4, who we learn escaped the zombie-plagued parking lot outside of the burning baseball stadium fire that seemingly killed Madison in the Season 4 episode "No One's Gone."

When Insider asked showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg if the final episodes of Season 6 closed the door on Madison, Chambliss answered, "Madison is always going to be a part of who Alicia is and a part of the fabric of the show. I don't think that closes the door on anything. I think we're just going to have to wait and see where the story goes."

Madison is mentioned both directly and indirectly in "Mother," where Alicia learns that Cole (Sebastian Sozzi), Doug (Kenneth Wayne Bradley), and Viv (Rhoda Griffis) survived the events of "No One's Gone." These characters were believed dead since the mid-season 4 finale in 2018, but their return fueled theories that Madison might have also escaped the overrun stadium.

"The references to Madison in the back-half of the story, really in terms of Alicia, were about her kind of questioning who she wants to be and what she's going to take from her mother and what she's going to be going forward," Chambliss explained. Season 6 ended with Alicia locked away in a bunker by Teddy (John Glover), who launched a missile loaded with nearly a dozen nuclear warheads that detonated across Texas in the season finale.

Alicia will take on an even larger leadership role in Season 7, which looks to transform her close friend Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) into the "ultimate version" of himself — someone who may be a villain for Alicia and Morgan Jones (Lennie James). If Madison's death is retconned, Season 7 is the time to do it for a reunion with her daughter and her old friend Strand.

In November, Chambliss told Insider that Madison's return to Fear is "definitely something we talk about." When asked to confirm that Madison is dead, Goldberg said: "Well… we never saw her body. And Madison herself said, 'No one's gone until they're gone.'"

Fear the Walking Dead returns with new episodes later this year on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things The Walking Dead Universe.