Radioactive walkers are not a new thing in the Fear the Walking Dead landscape. However, when the hit zombie apocalypse series returns for Season 7, there will certainly be a lot more of them.
The Season 6 finale saw the detonation of a nuclear warhead that had been launched by Teddy (John Glover) and Riley (Nick Stahl). With no way of knowing where the missile would land, various characters on Fear the Walking Dead were left scrambling for cover.
Of course, this only happened because they knew about the missile. For many other people out there, the knowledge was only received when they saw the missile in the sky.
And, for others, that knowledge never arrived. This means that Season 7 will definitely see an uptick in walkers that have been affected by the nuclear blast — both before and after they died.
Greg Nicotero has designed new radioactive zombies
When Grace (Karen David) was introduced in Season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead, viewers got their very first look at radioactive walkers.
She had worked at a nuclear power plant where a meltdown had occurred. As a result of this, she was trying to track down all the highly dangerous walkers before they came into contact with other people.
Now, radioactive walkers are back and special make-up effects guru Greg Nicotero will bring plenty of new radioactive walkers to Season 7, according to Comic Book.
“We said, ‘All these nuclear bombs went off, let’s push the walker stuff as much as we can.’ And [Nicotero’s team] gave us some really cool designs that we’re excited to see brought to life,” said showrunner Andrew Chambliss.
In order to survive the destroyed surroundings, Ian Goldberg also added that there would be cool new outfits for the characters to wear in order to protect themselves not only from the walkers but the landscape in general.
“There’s going to be a lot of gas masks in Season 7, as you can probably guess,” Goldberg revealed.
The entire landscape of Fear the Walking Dead will change
As to be expected when a nuclear bomb goes off, the landscape of Fear the Walking Dead will be vastly different when the show returns.
“[The characters] are going to have to deal with the devastation, nuclear fallout, ash, unbreathable air, destroyed structures, limited resources, all these new environmental factors that are going to make survival just exponentially more difficult for them,” said Goldberg.
In addition to this, the characters are going to have to quickly come to terms with the fact they are back at ground zero once more.
Having adapted the first time to the zombie apocalypse, these people learned to look after themselves, but that will all change once more and this will potentially result in some shifts in dynamics between characters and friendships in Season 7.
Fear the Walking Dead has been renewed by AMC for a seventh season but, as yet, no release date has officially been announced.