The Walking Dead franchise has delivered such a wide variety of zombies -- ranging from a zombie rotting in a well to a nude zombie -- that it has begun to feel like the shows are running out of ways to revolutionize walkers. Well, Fear the Walking Dead has found an epic way to do something new with its zombies: by making them fly. The first few minutes of Fear the Walking Dead's midseason premiere have hit the web early, and they reveal flying zombies. Take a look for yourself!
Fortunately for those of us who like our zombie apocalypse shows to be grounded at least a little bit in reality, these walkers have not suddenly sprouted wings or gained the ability to fly on their own. Instead, they got caught up in the middle of a violent storm with gusts strong enough to send them flying, which is as entertaining as it is hilarious. I mean, if you had told me back when The Walking Dead premiered that there would someday be a spinoff that sends walkers flying through the air because of a storm, I wouldn't have believed you.
That said, it does make a certain degree of sense that they would be swept off their feet. Rotting zombies don't exactly have the mass as living people. (Or road signs, clearly.) My only problem with the scene is that there was no walker stuck in the mud or pinned up against something so that we could see the wind stripping the rotting flesh off its skeleton. Have I been watching zombie apocalypse shows for too long?
Anyway, the flying zombies aren't the only things of note in the first few minutes of Fear the Walking Dead's midseason premiere. After the storm passes, we get a scene of Morgan and Althea chatting via walkie talkie, and Morgan has a bombshell to drop on Al, although not until they bantered over Al's tapes and the fact that Morgan hasn't filled her in on all the details of the story. Sure, she has interviews from a couple of Walking Dead characters whose tapes turned up on Fear the Walking Dead in an unexpected Easter egg, but Morgan has a long and strange zombie apocalypse story that Al would surely love to hear.
Morgan's bombshell was that he wants to return to Alexandria and the people he left behind, and he would like Althea to drive him there, which would be no small favor. Morgan's request is somewhat surprising given his involvement with his new group. Could this be a way for The Walking Dead to bring Lennie James back now that Andrew Lincoln is leaving? If that's the case, it would also likely mean Maggie Grace joining the cast of The Walking Dead, and that could also serve to replace a departing actor, even if Al and The Walking Dead's departing character aren't quite interchangeable. Still, it would be fun to see her interact with Eugene again, and the Walking Dead time jump could accommodate the time it would take for them to travel all the way to Alexandria.
Only time will tell. We're still a couple of months away from new episodes of The Walking Dead, but Fear the Walking Dead's midseason premiere will air on Sunday, August 12 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC, to be followed by a Fear the Walking Dead edition of Talking Dead. Fear the Walking Dead has already been renewed for another season, so there's no need to worry that the second half of Season 4 will be the end. For more of what you can expect on the small screen in the not-too-distant future, check out our fall TV schedule.
