The premiere of The Walking Dead spinoff Fear the Walking Dead in 2015 automatically led to questions of if and when we could expect crossovers between the two series. Although there have been some vague connections between the two, none of the characters have yet crossed paths on the small screen. In fact, they haven't even crossed paths in the Walking Dead comics in a way that could set the stage for an AMC event. Unfortunately, fans shouldn't get their hopes up for crossovers any time soon for one big reason: the characters on the two series are owned by separate companies.
The Walking Dead show is based on Robert Kirkman's wildly popular zombie apocalypse comic series, and most--although not all--of the characters are adapted directly from his stories. The Fear the Walking Dead show, on the other hand, was developed for AMC with entirely original characters. In order for the Fear the Walking Dead characters to show up in the Walking Dead comics, the Skybound/Image Comics company would need to license the characters from AMC. ComicBook.com notes that Kirkman would have to jump through some legal hoops just to get the characters on the same page, and his comics are doing just fine without any potential boost from a crossover. If the characters can't connect in The Walking Dead comics, there's a good chance they won't connect on the small screen, either.
That said, the shows have informed one another, as Fear the Walking Dead filled in some of the Walking Dead blanks about the first days of the zombie apocalypse while Rick was too busy being comatose to star in any adventures. Season 2 has taken the characters past the fall of civilization and sent them south of the border to Mexico, and a recent storyline actually tied a Fear the Walking Dead show plot into a Walking Dead comics plot. Nick discovered a group of Mexican survivors whose tactics for living in the zombie apocalypse are awfully similar to those adopted by The Whisperers as they encounter Rick and Co. up north. Sadly, we almost certainly won't be seeing Nick if and when The Walking Dead covers The Whisperers on AMC.
Of course, even if comic crossovers were there to set the stage for a TV crossover, a meeting of the two groups just wouldn't be practical. The timeline of The Walking Dead is currently several years ahead of Fear the Walking Dead, and the majority of the Walking Dead characters are either from the south or the Washington D.C. area. It would be a stretch even for a show about something as fantastical as the zombie apocalypse for any of Rick's crew to stumble across Nick or Maddie in Mexico. As an original character, Daryl might have made the most sense, but he revealed to Beth back in Season 4 that he'd never left Georgia. Under most circumstances, Walking Dead folks appearing on the spinoff wouldn't make sense.
Fear the Walking Dead folks could make more sense. The characters could have conceivably migrated toward the D.C. area over the years as the zombie apocalypse progressed. A flashforward of sorts to Nick or Maddie or Travis appearing in Alexandria could work, but it would also reveal that certain characters wouldn't die on Fear the Walking Dead, and that would take a lot of suspense out of the spinoff.
All in all, the odds for a comic or TV crossover between The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead aren't too great. Hopefully the shows continue to stand well enough on their own that they don't need a crossover boost. Tune in to AMC on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET to see what's next for Rick and Co. on The Walking Dead.
