‘Fear The Walking Dead’: Colman Domingo Talks Strand’s Conversation With Cosmonaut Vaschenko

“Fear the Walking Dead” star Colman Domingo said that Strand will try to survive the apocalypse in a different way following his unexpected chat with cosmonaut Vaschenko in the mid-season 3 finale.

“With this conversation, the cosmonaut [told Strand that] the world is not dead until [he is],” Domingo told ComicBook.com in a recent interview. “So I guess they gave him the courage to at least go out and fight as he used to but in a different manner. Victor can’t afford to be at his own hand in some way and be like, ‘Okay, see what this new world has to offer.’ Maybe he’s not done yet. Maybe he can rebuild in a different way. It’s been part of his evolution to change.”

“[But] to change the way, he can’t operate with his old systems anymore,” Domingo continued. “So I think that it will make him a bit more dangerous. It will make him a bit more cagey. I think it will make him a bit more slick.”

In a separate interview with Yahoo TV last July, showrunner Dave Erickson also said that Strand’s conversation with Vaschenko motivated the former to find his purpose in the new world. “It’s the first time anyone on our show has articulated the fact that [the apocalypse] is global, that the entire world has gone dark,” Erickson pointed out. “And that’s information, I think, that shifts Strand and makes him not nihilistic, but I think it puts him in a place where he’s going to become more driven to find his purpose and to control the currency of the world.”

“It’s not as though there’s somebody on another continent who’s actually working on a cure. It’s not as though someone is going to rise up and fix this,” Erickson continued. “[So the moment] really puts him in a position where, ‘Okay, I need to decide if I’m going to keep going or if I’m going to die.’ And that’s really what the cosmonaut does suggest to him. The world keeps turning, and as long as it does, he needs to keep moving with it.”

As for whether viewers will hear from Vaschenko again, Erickson told The Hollywood Reporter that it’s only a one-episode role. “We will not hear from that astronaut again, because I think shortly after he signed off, he died,” the showrunner said.

“Fear the Walking Dead” airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.