Is ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Character Madison Clark Related To ‘The Walking Dead’s’ Rick Grimes?

When Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) reminded viewers that she’s from Alabama after her Southern accent came out early in Season 3 of “Fear the Walking Dead,” a lot of fans were quick to speculate that the character may be a relative of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) or other characters from “The Walking Dead.”

Although Madison’s accent is closely similar to that of Rick and the rest of his crew, “Fear the Walking Dead” showrunner Dave Erickson revealed that the Clark matriarch is not related by blood to anyone on “The Walking Dead.”

“I’ve heard that theory, and I actually think I teased it in my first ‘Talking Dead’ appearance, which was this notion that I found it interesting,” Erickson said in a recent interview with ComicBook.com. “You can hear her accent. I mean, Kim [Dickens is] from Alabama. And you can hear her accent come through every so often. And the character, as we come to learn, is also from Alabama. So I can only speak for myself and say she’s not related to Rick or anybody else on the other show. And the fact that she’s from the south is really just a coincidence.”

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Of course, the now defunct theory partly came from the fans’ desire to see a crossover between the two shows. Although people behind the two series have no plans for a crossover any time soon, “The Walking Dead” and “Fear the Walking Dead” executive producer Robert Kirkman said that a crossover between the two zombie dramas is “completely possible.”

“They’re in the same universe so it’s completely possible,” Kirkman said at Hawaii Comic Con last year when asked if there will ever be a crossover between the two shows. “Geographically, they’re nowhere near each other so it would be somewhat farfetched if group A were to somehow encounter group B unless over the course of many, many, many, many seasons somehow it made sense.”

Unlike other networks and producers who would quickly jump at the opportunity to use a crossover event to increase ratings, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd previously revealed that AMC and her fellow producers are more wary in doing a crossover between the two shows.

“[Doing a crossover] is truly jumping the shark because it’s not an outgrowth of who your characters are and what it is that each wants and needs,” Hurd told Deadline in 2015. “You’re trying to contort them so that they’ll fit into a plot line that simply isn’t logical. I think the thing is to care for the characters.”

“That’s what has enabled ‘The Walking Dead’ to go into its sixth season incredibly strong, because you care about individual characters be it Rick, Michonne (Danai Gurira) or Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) or Morgan (Lennie James),” she added. “You care about the new characters that are introduced. You know what the rules are and you also know that whatever you expect will happen likely won’t, or if it does it’ll happen with a unique twist. So I think the same will apply to ‘Fear.’”

“Fear the Walking Dead” will air its two-part mid-Season 3 finale on Sunday, July 9 at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC, while “The Walking Dead” will return in the fall for Season 8.