Fear the Walking Dead Stars Warn Fans: “Brace Yourselves” For “Very Dark” Season 6

Fear the Walking Dead stars Lennie James and Karen David warn the coming sixth season of the Walking Dead spinoff is “very, very dark,” and “no one is going to be the same” at season’s end. Year five of the show ended with Morgan (James) facing the end of the line after he was shot and left for dead by Virginia (Colby Minifie), who tore Morgan’s group apart when she ordered the survivors be separated and shipped to far-reaching settlements. Some will be together, others will be alone, but all must learn how to survive under the thumb of Virginia and zombie apocalypse cowboys the Pioneers.

“There’s going to be too much fear for you to handle,” James said during the virtual Walking Dead Family Hangout. “It gets dark this season.”

Added fifth season addition David, who plays Morgan’s would-be romantic partner Grace, “We are definitely going to the dark side. Very, very dark, so just brace yourselves. It’s going to be quite the emo-coaster.”

A Walking Dead veteran who appeared in the original show’s first episode before returning later as a series regular, followed by a jump to Fear in the first crossover between the two shows, James has seen his share of darkness during a decade-long tenure as Morgan Jones: the character was previously driven mad after witnessing his wife’s reanimated corpse attack and devour their son, a traumatic history Morgan took steps to overcome in the fifth season of Fear the Walking Dead.

“When you consider this universe, for me to say, ‘We’re going dark,’ it must be something pretty serious,” James said. “We’re pretty much going there. No one is going to be the same at the end of this season.”

Showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg were first to tease a “far darker” sixth season, which follows Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), Daniel (Rubén Blades), Dwight (Austin Amelio), Althea (Maggie Grace), Charlie (Alexa Nisenson), and newlyweds John (Garret Dillahunt) and June (Jenna Elfman) into new territory.

“We’re going to follow our characters on a very different journey — a far darker one — in Season 6 and that required them to face not just an adversary who views the world in a way contrary to everything our heroes fought for [in Season 5], but also to find themselves in positions where their belief in the benevolent world they were fighting for will be challenged at every turn,” the showrunners said in an October interview. “The answer ultimately lied in having Virginia separate everyone, sending them to different corners of her apocalyptic domain.”

The group find themselves in “some of the lowest places we’ve ever seen them,” the showrunner duo said, adding the big question for the new season is “whether our characters will be able to hold onto this growth under Ginny’s rule, whether they’ll backslide, or whether they’ll become versions of themselves we’ve yet to see.”

Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 premieres this October on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.