‘Fear The Walking Dead’: Kim Dickens Opens Up About Cliff Curtis’ Departure From AMC Series

“Fear the Walking Dead” star Kim Dickens has spoken out about Cliff Curtis’ unexpected exit from the AMC series early in Season 3.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Dickens admitted that she was devastated after she found out about Curtis’ departure from the zombie drama. “It’s devastating,” Dickens — who plays Madison Clark on the show — said when asked what it was like to lose a fellow cast member whom she had worked with since day one of the series. “We were all distraught by the news and selfishly so. Obviously, Cliff goes on to do other great things, but you know we all were sort of heartbroken in part because we’d become a family and started the show from the ground up.”

Dickens shared that for a moment, she and her remaining original co-stars asked themselves if they could continue telling the story without Curtis. “We thought, ‘Gosh I don’t know how to tell this story with one of the main four missing,” Dickens said. “But, you know, it’s part of storytelling and it’s truthful. All these characters are in great danger at all times. I mean when you leave a character like that it really resonates in an emotional way for all the other characters and the audience. As an actor it’s what we do. We start and stop jobs all the time. It’s the nature of this genre that characters are at that risk at a moment-to-moment basis. So you get on board with what the show is. But we miss him all the time.”

READ: Is “Fear the Walking Dead’s” Madison related to “Walking Dead’s” Rick?

Curtis’ character, Travis Manawa, was killed off at the beginning of Season 3, episode 2. Travis got shot in the neck after the helicopter he was in received gunfire from Walker’s (Michael Greyeyes) men. Realizing that the situation was dire, he opened up the helicopter door and jumped off from it to avoid endangering his traveling companions, including Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), once he turns into one of the infected mid-air.

While a lot of fans feel that there’s more stories to tell about Madison’s fiancé, showrunner Dave Erickson said that the character’s story had already reached its end.

“Following Chris’ (Lorenzo James Henrie) death, I think [his father’s] death was inevitable,” Erickson told TVLine. “Travis’ whole trajectory at that point was to do for his surrogate son what he’d failed to do for his biological one. Coming off of Chris’ death, Travis had failed. He’d broken his promise to Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez) — he hadn’t protected their boy. So for him, it becomes very much a question of atonement and redemption. And the only way to do that is to return Nick (Frank Dillane) to Madison, which he does.”

Erickson also told The Hollywood Reporter that Travis’ story “was essentially over” after he saved Nick from the militiamen in the first-half of the season premiere. “He [already] did what he needed to do,” said Erickson. “I think Cliff played it beautifully in the end of the premiere. He’s accomplished something. He returned Nick to his mother. But pointedly, he’s not part of that family embrace at the end of the act. There’s a certain remove and a certain resignation, even in his own mind. It didn’t fix anything for him. It may have brought Madison back with her son, but it didn’t repair anything in Travis. I think he knows that. There’s a certain fateful quality coming off of that.”

Have you already moved on from Travis’ sudden demise? Sound off in the comments section below!