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Fear the Walking Dead co-showrunner Ian Goldberg has teased what's to come in season 8, including PADRE and Madison's descension down a dark path in the wake of her and Morgan's rescue attempt on Mo.
Speaking to SFX magazine in the new issue, which features Star Trek: Picard on the cover, Goldberg ominously pointed out: "Everything about the way society is run at PADRE is designed to beat out that human connection between people – to separate parents from their children, to raise children in a way that they're not emotionally connected."
While the mysteriously menacing organization has been mentioned on the show, our survivors – and subsequently, us too – have yet to properly encounter it. A blindfolded Morgan and Madison were taken there in the season 7 finale, however, after the former gave up the whereabouts to their group – and by the sounds of things, they're still living there when season 8, which takes place seven years later, kicks off.
"This is a question that I think all The Walking Dead shows wrestle with – and we've certainly wrestled with it on ours – which is pragmatism versus believing in something more," Goldberg notes. "Maybe they're surviving a little better at PADRE than people outside of it. But at the end of the day, what are they surviving for if they've lost that human connection, and family? It's not necessarily an easy answer, because I think there's arguments to be made on both sides. So we'll see how it goes with PADRE in season 8."
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Elsewhere in the chat, Goldberg touched on Kim Dickens' long-awaited return, and promised a "Madison Clark we've never seen before." He continued: "This is a reinvention. To see her in this completely different situation, where she's actually ripping families apart, is something that we really leaned into. Why would Madison be doing something that's so contrary to the Madison that we found before?
"She's done a lot of things that she now regrets working for PADRE," Goldberg went on. "But in crossing paths with Morgan, there's a path to redemption. It's something that we're going to see her really wrestle with in season eight; the Madison that she was in season four and the Madison she became in the interim. It's not going to be an easy road for her to walk in season eight. It's very much about her identity, who she is, what she believes in."
Fear the Walking Dead season 8 premieres on AMC and AMC Plus at 9pm on May 14. Fans in the UK will be able to tune into the final chapter the following day with a BT TV subscription.
That's just a snippet of our interview, available in the latest issue of SFX Magazine, which features Star Trek: Picard on the cover and is available on newsstands this Thursday, April 20! For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.
