Fear the Walking Dead season 5 exec on specific tone moving forward

Fear the Walking Dead season 5 is going to premiere on AMC come Sunday night and at this point, it’s probably impossible to predict anything for sure. Season 4 of the show killed off a number of beloved characters, and it also ventured in some really weird directions that we did not expect in the slightest.

Basically, this is almost night and day from the show that it was back in season one. It’s no longer about literal family members coming together and trying to survive in the apocalypse. Instead, it’s a little bit more about this bizarre, metaphorical family of people who found each other across this zombie-infested wasteland. There are only a handful of characters left from the first season, and the show’s tone is ever-evolving as well. Remember the boat? Remember Broke Jaw Ranch? They feel like forever ago.

Let’s now talk about tone further. Moving into season 5, for example, it seems like the idea is to kind of give the story a little more lightness — think of this in contrast to the heavy drama you get on The Walking Dead proper sometimes. Here, you’re going to see people trying to help others who are stranded out on the road, ones possibly suffering due to zombies, starvation, and all sorts of other problems. There will still be drama, and there certainly will be fear, but it’s not going to be the same exact thing that you’ve seen before. Some of this may be a creative risk, but this show certainly knows risks better than most. Not all the ones that they’ve taken have worked, and some people are still talking about. We’re looking directly at what happened to Madison here, just in case you didn’t know.

Apparently, executive producer Ian B. Goldberg specifically went into this season using a certain movie as a great source of inspiration: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Why? It’s certainly scary at times, but there is a dark sense of humor flowing through it. For some more thoughts on the matter, just check out what he had to say via TV Guide:

“I think the way that we have conceived of and what we embrace and love about Fear is that it’s a very different tone than The Walking Dead, and I believe it’s going to be a different tone than the new show … It’s obviously a very optimistic, very hopeful show about unifying people. We love that we can go to sort of comedic places with it,” like the scene in Season 4 where Morgan compared a wheelchair-accessible bathroom stall to a “little apartment.”

Can this tone work for Fear the Walking Dead? It really all depends on the individual moments for the characters. That’s the thing, after covering this franchise for almost a decade, that matters more than anything else. We know that the technical team for the show will be brilliant at creating some cool zombie effects. What is currently unknown is whether or not the story will fully support the greatness that you’re getting in other places. Fear The Walking Dead has certainly had an inconsistent run, but when it’s working, it works in a way that’s up there with some of the best genre show is on TV.

If you do want a little bit more insight before season 5 premieres, we just suggest heading over to the link here. Meanwhile, let us know what you want to see on Fear The Walking Dead season 5 right now in the comments. (Photo: AMC.)