‘Fear The Walking Dead’ EP Talks Strand’s Chat With Russian Astronaut

“Fear the Walking Dead” executive producer Gale Ann Hurd explained why the conversation between Strand (Colman Domingo) and the Russian astronaut in the mid-Season 3 finale was an important moment for the AMC series.

During the show’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, Hurd said that after finding out that the zombie apocalypse is a worldwide occurrence, Strand realized that “there is no place he can go to where life is normal.” Hurd added that Strand came to the realization that he and the rest of the survivors he had relationships with “have to form their own community” because the “apocalypse isn’t going to be over anytime soon.”

In an interview with Yahoo TV earlier this month, showrunner Dave Erickson also said that Strand’s conversation with the astronaut motivated the former businessman 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.”

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“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.”

In the newly released trailer for the second half of Season 3, Strand is seen reunited with Madison (Kim Dickens), so it seems that it won’t be that long before the Clark matriarch discovers that the apocalypse is a global phenomenon. And when that time comes, Madison gets another reason to preserve Broke Jaw Ranch to the best of her ability.

“Fear the Walking Dead” Season 3B will premiere on Sunday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.