Fear the Walking Dead (season 4) – Wikipedia

The fourth season of Fear the Walking Dead, an American horror-drama television series on AMC, premiered on April 15, 2018, and will comprise 16 episodes split into two eight-episode parts.[1] The second half of the season will premiere on August 12, 2018.[2] It is a companion series to The Walking Dead, and the season premiere contained the first crossover between the two series. The season features new showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian B. Goldberg, as well as several new cast members including The Walking Dead's Lennie James, who portrays Morgan Jones. The series also moved to a new filming location, Austin, Texas.

On April 14, 2017, AMC renewed the series for a 16-episode fourth season and announced that Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg would replace the departing Dave Erickson as showrunners.[15] Production began in November 2017 in Austin, Texas.[16] Michael E. Satrazemis, a director of photography for The Walking Dead and director of 12 episodes, joined Fear the Walking Dead as a directing-producer.[17]

In November 2017, it was reported that Lennie James who portrays Morgan Jones on The Walking Dead would crossover and join the main cast in the fourth season.[18] The fourth season also sees the additions of several new series regulars, played by Garret Dillahunt,[19] Jenna Elfman,[20] and Maggie Grace.[21]

On April 21, 2018, Colman Domingo revealed that he would be directing the twelfth episode of this season.[22]

The fourth season features a redesigned title sequence with new theme music. Each episode of the season has a different title card, and tells a story which will become apparent once the season is completed.[23] The Hollywood Reporter reflected on the new intro, calling the new season, "a Western with zombies, very much by design."[24]

Goldberg spoke of the season's narrative structure, which features multiple timelines:

"We're playing with the structure, depending on which story we're telling in the episode. What we find so exciting about telling stories across time is it allows for mystery and for finding characters in an emotional place and exploring how they came to be that way, and finding them in a very different emotional place in the flashback storyline not only from a plot perspective of piecing it together, but also showing how people became who they are by charting them in the present and comparing it to where they've been in the past."[24]

The new showrunners also were inspired by Westerns; Chambliss stated, "It all started with the themes we set out at the beginning: isolation and community. Those themes run through a lot of classic Western stories." Visually, the season is inspired by John Ford and Sergio Leone's Westerns, using Once Upon a Time in the West as a template for directors. Chambliss said, "it's all about having wide shots, not moving the characters, but moving the characters within the frame. When we get to the editing room, it's really about slowing down the cutting pattern, and harkening back to that style of filmmaking. It does infuse the show with a different feel than what we've seen before. It's something that we're very excited for people to see."[24]

The third episode of the season features the death of Nick Clark, played by Frank Dillane. In an interview after the episode had aired, Dillane revealed he asked to leave the show prior to the fourth season. The actor explained:

"I had been doing it for three or four years, the show has undergone many changes in terms of different people in charge, all of this stuff, and I just felt like the beginning of this season kind of felt like the end of an era with this show. And television is hard work, and you have to shoot a lot. I also missed Europe very much. I'm not American, so after a while I get quite homesick and all of those things. I also felt like we had achieved what needed to be achieved in the first few seasons, so I thought it was time to keep moving."[25]

On March 15, 2018, it was announced that the season premiere and the season eight finale of The Walking Dead would be screened at AMC, Regal, and Cinemark theaters across the United States on April 15, the same day as the televised airing, for "Survival Sunday: The Walking Dead & Fear the Walking Dead". The episodes marked the first crossover between the two series. The cinema screening also included an extra half-hour of exclusive bonus content.[26]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season has an approval rating of 86% based on 73 reviews, with an average rating of 7.94/10.[27] TVLine reevaluated the series for its fourth season, giving it a grade of a "B+". Reviewer Charlie Mason wrote, "it's gone from being an adequate stopgap between seasons of The Walking Dead to a show that's as good or arguably even better than the one from which it was spun off." He also praised the addition of Jenna Elfman and Garret Dillahunt and that season 4 has had several genuine surprises in its storytelling.[28]

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Fear the Walking Dead (season 4) - Wikipedia