‘Fear The Walking Dead’ EP Confirms Daniel Salazar’s Season 3 Return [SPOILERS]

Rubén Blades as Daniel Salazar — “Fear the Walking Dead” executive producer Dave Erickson said that Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) will “rise again” over the course of the upcoming Season 3 of the AMC series. Richard Foreman Jr/AMC

“Fear the Walking Dead” Season 3 will see the return of Rubén Blades’ Daniel Salazar.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Dave Erickson confirmed that Blades is reprising his role as Daniel in the upcoming season of the AMC series. “We’ve said publicly that he didn’t die in the fire [in Season 2, episode 7],” Erickson said. “And I think what was always important is that the characters, specifically [Daniel’s daughter] Ofelia (Mercedes Mason), thought that they had lost him. So I think his return is now long overdue and I can promise that Daniel Salazar will rise again over the course of Season 3.”

Erickson told TVLine last May that Daniel won’t return to the show as one of the infected. “My hope is that we will see him resurrected in Season 3 in an organic way,” Erickson said at the time. “I think there’s more story to tell with that character and also more story to tell in that father/daughter relationship.”

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When asked why the show decided to let go of Blades temporarily, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd told Deadline that the actor is a very busy guy. “He’s got a lot of things on his plate, and we certainly hope that he will be back,” she said at the time.

In Season 2, episode 7, Daniel had a mental breakdown and thought that his dead wife Griselda (Patricia Reyes Spíndola) was waiting for him and their daughter Ofelia. When Ofelia tried to calm him down, he only became more insistent, forcing several of the workers at the Mexican compound to intervene. Daniel was then tied up in a storage room, where he continued to have visions of his late wife.

When Jorge (Ramón Medína) untied him to give him some food, Daniel killed him and escaped. He then headed to the infected-filled wine cellar, and set it on fire. He did not make it out in time to reunite with Ofelia and the Clarks, so they think he died in the fire when in reality he was able to escape.

“Fear the Walking Dead” Season 3 premieres on Sunday, June 4 at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.