Hopefully you're not holding your breath waiting in anticipation for a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas. One of the most iconic pieces of holiday pop culture, many have thought the movie might be a perfect candidate for a revival decades after it was first released; after all, Disney has been busy making sequels and follow-ups to projects like Hocus Pocus and The Mighty Ducks. If Tim Burton gets his way, however, the Nightmare franchise will never be touched again.

"I've done sequels, I've done other things, I've done reboots, I've done all that shit, right? I don't want that to happen to this. It's nice that people are maybe interested [in another one], but I'm not," Burton said in a recent chat with Empire.

He added, "I feel like that old guy who owns a little piece of property and won't sell to the big power plant that wants to take my land."

Composer Danny Elfman, the singing voice of Jack Skellington and the maestro behind the film's score, shared a similar sentiment when we spoke with him last year.

"I don't think so," Elfman told ComicBook.com about a Nightmare follow-up. "I think Tim has always felt that no, this is what it was."

"But you know, it wouldn't totally shock me if he came back with... If he had a fresh take on it, I would certainly go for the ride with him," the composer continued. "But he's never expressed any interest in that. I think he felt like this was a pure thing and it was what it was and that to try to do sequels on it would, I think it's just not inspired him. But I won't ever speak for Tim. It's his universe."

Though both Burton and Elfman seem cold on the idea of a sequel, director Henry Selick says a potential prequel or origin could fly. "It might be more interesting to do a prequel," the director admitted last month. "There might be a more interesting story there about how Jack became the King of Halloweentown."

The Nightmare Before Christmas is now streaming on Disney+.

Some big changes are coming to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre this month, many of which will be related to Leatherface. Earlier this month, Gun Media revealed that the killer will no longer be required for matches, allowing players to have greater freedom to choose between playable characters. Gun Media announced another change coming for the character, and this one relates to the Nicotero Leatherface design that arrived in the game last month. That design was accompanied by a unique chainsaw, and soon players that purchased the skin will be able to use that chainsaw with any Leatherface skin.

"After the last live stream that Matt and I did, we heard the feedback on saw swapping. Matt spoke to Wes, Wes spoke to Ronnie, and the decision was made to bring the Nicotero saw skin to other Leatherface variants, if you own the Nicotero Premium Outfit," Gun Media's community manager wrote on the game's subreddit.

So far, fans seem pretty happy about this change! The Nicotero Leatherface chainsaw not only has a unique design, it also has a different sound. A lot of fans preferred the saw, but also liked the original design for the killer. Now players will have the option of switching back and forth, offering a bit more customization freedom. At this time, no date has been announced for this change, but hopefully it will arrive in the game soon.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre's Next Update

Since the game's developers have not committed to a date for the swappable chainsaws, it's a safe bet that the new Leatherface option will not arrive in time for the game's next update. On November 28th, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will be getting a mix of free and paid content. All players will get access to a new map (Nancy's House), as well as a number of different bug fixes. The game will also add two new paid characters: Nancy (a new killer) and Danny (a new victim). These two characters will be available in the game for $9.99 each.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre Black Friday Deals

For those that haven't played The Texas Chain Saw Massacre yet, this week should offer the perfect opportunity. A 20% off sale started a few days ago on the PlayStation Store, bringing the game down to $31.99 from its normal $39.99. PC gamers can actually get the game a little bit cheaper by buying it on Steam, where the game is 25% off, bringing it down to $29.99. Both of these sales will be ending on November 28th. That leaves the Microsoft Store as the only platform not offering a discount on the game, but access to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is included with an Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Are you excited for this change to Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Did you purchase the Nicotero Leatherface design last month? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

Scream 7 has been in the headlines more this week than at any other point of its development cycle. Yesterday brought word that series star Melissa Barrera had been fired by Spyglass, following recent statements about the conflict between Israel and Palestine which the production company considered antisemitic in nature. Less than a day later it was confirmed that Jenna Ortega, who played Barrera's on-screen sister and has become a household name thanks to Netflix's Wednesday, would also not be returning for the next sequel. With the new Scream movies without their two biggest stars in the front, something new is being considered for the sequel, with a trip back to the well seemingly in the cards.

According to a report from Variety, Scream 7 is essentially starting with a brand new draft of its screenplay which will be replacing its lead protagonists. Though Barrera and Ortega only had a two-picture deal for the series, completing it with Scream VI, producers were planning for them to anchor the new movie. Now that neither of them will appear though, the trade reports that Scream's producers are looking for franchise staples to return.

The trade notes that both Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, original stars that have appeared in nearly every movie, could be targets and are on a "wish list" to appear in the new movie. Campbell notably did not appear in Scream VI following a salary dispute. As the outlet reveals, the producers of the series are "keen to see her reclaim her iconic character."

Another character reportedly on the wish list to star in Scream 7 is none other than Patrick Dempsey. Just voted the Sexiest Man Alive, and having just starred in the Scream-like slasher Thanksgiving, Dempsey first appeared in 2000's Scream 3 as Detective Mark Kincaid. Though he only had the one appearance in the Scream series it has since been established that Dempsey's Kincaid and Campbell's Sydney Prescott are married and have a family together.

Despite appearances in the first five movies of the series, Neve Campbell opted not to return for Scream VI after a dispute over her salary forced her to walk away from the sequel. The actress was previously very open about the fact that she wouldn't be returning despite becoming the face of the franchise. At a convention earlier this month Campbell actually addressed the movie for the first time publicly after finally watching it.

"I watched it until two weeks ago. It took me a minute, I don't know why," Campbell said during a spotlight panel at Monster-Mania Con this month. "I actually thought they did a really good job. I think the cast are really powerful, wonderful actors...I don't wish these movies ill will. I wanted the movie to be good. It's not like I'm sitting in my house going, 'I hope it sucks, I hope it doesn't do well.' I care about all the people involved. There's someone at the top who only thinks about money and that's their prerogative."

According to Variety's report on these major Scream 7 rewrites, it's possible that set pieces and twists that were written for the movie will still make it into the draft, but the lead characters are where new decisions will need to be made. Scribes James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick will be working on the new draft of the script, but none of the three stars reportedly on the Scream 7 "wish list" have been in any kind of negotiations for a return. No official release date has been set for Scream 7, but Happy Death Day's Christopher Landon has been hired to direct the project.

Nearly 24 hours after Melissa Barrera was dropped from Scream VII after controversial social media posts, the actor has issued her first comments on the firing. In a statement shared to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday evening, Barrera says she "condemns Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and hate and prejudice of any kind against any group of people."

"As a latina, a proud Mexicana, I feel the responsibility of having a platform that allows me the privilege of being heard, and therefore I have tried to use it to raise awareness about issues I care about and to lend my voice to those in need," the actor wrote in her post.

She added, "Every person on this earth- regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or socio-economic status- deserves equal human rights, dignity and, of course, freedom."

The Scream V and Scream VI star went on to clarify her original comments, which reportedly landed her in hot water for taking an anti-Semitic stance.

"I believe a group of people are NOT their leadership, and that no governing body should be above criticism," she added. "I pray day and night for no more deaths, for no more violence, and for peaceful co-existence. I will continue to speak out for those that need it most and continue to advocate for peace and safety, for human rights and freedom. Silence is not an option for me."

Barrera initially slammed the media for what she calls a pro-Israel stance in its ongoing war with Hamas.

"I have been actively looking for videos and information about the Palestinian side for the last 2 weeks or so, following accounts etc. Why? Because western media only shows the other side," Barrera said in October posts. "Why they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself. Usually the algorithm on social media gets the gist. Well... My discover page on IG will ONLY show me videos showing and talking about the Israeli side. Censorship is very real. Palestinians know this, they know the world has been trying to make them invisible for decades. Keep sharing."

Scream V and Scream VI are streaming on Paramount+. Scream VII is in development and has yet to set a release date.

This story is developing...

Jenna Ortega will reportedly not return for the next Scream movie, due to scheduling conflicts with the second season of Wednesday. The star is not expected to return for the seventh installment in the long-running horror franchise, which could be a real blow to the movie. While the sixth Scream opened to a massive $67 million globally last year, it was also the first movie without Neve Campbell, who could not come to a deal with producers. Now, not only is Ortega going to be absent, but just yesterday, Melissa Barrera (who played Ortega's sister) was fired from the film.

That suggests that the next installment will have to be something special to overcome the sense that the franchise is losing its direction. After decades of following the same handful of characters, this revival can't make it three movies before two of its most popular characters are out the door.

Barrera was reportedly fired yesterday after Redditors dug up a number of social media posts she made on her Instagram story during October, supporting Palestine in their ongoing war with Israel. She reposted and commented on a number of stories, and called the attacks on Palestinian civilians "genocide." Support for Palestine has become a lightning rod in recent weeks, with Oscar-winning Blue Beetle star Susan Sarandon being dropped by her management at United Talent Agency for comments opposed to Israel.

"This is my statement: Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make," Scream VII director Christopher Landon wrote in a now-deleted post on social media, along with a broken heart emoji.

Scream V and Scream VI revitalized the franchise like few other franchise reboots could. Scream 6 ended up being a franchise record-setter, earning more domestically in the US and Canada than any other installment, and hitting overall numbers ($169 million worldwide on a $30 million budget) not seen since Scream 2 and the franchise's best heyday. Barrera had solidified her character Sam Carpenter (daughter of original Ghostface killer, Billy Loomis) as a scream-queen icon, right up there alongside Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott. That said, Scream VI also elevated Sam's half-sister Tara to main character/scream queen status, as well; Tara is played by Netflix's Wednesday star Jenna Ortega, who has inarguably become a much bigger mainstream star than Barrera. Scream 7 has all the runway needed to kill Sam offscreen or send her away (for a possible return later), while Tara (Ortega) leads the next installment of the franchise.

Scream (that's the fifth one!) and Scream VI are streaming on Paramount+. Scream VII is in development.

h/t Deadline

Somna #1 introduces readers to life in a small unnamed village set amidst England in the early 17th century as witch hunts terrorize the countryside. Ingrid is married to the local bailiff and witchfinder Roland, who ignores her in favor of his official duties, even as she is plagued by increasingly frightening dreams. The entire affair--weaving together historical fiction, eroticism, and the supernatural--is presented in a pristinely prepared package in which every page, title, and effect is considered, much like Cloonan's exquisite By Chance or By Providence.

Cloonan and Lotay divide artistic duties between Ingrid's waking and unconscious hours. The issue opens on a dream sequence in which Ingrid captures fragments of imagery before settling her gaze upon a dark figure with lustful intents. Lotay's style matches this dreamscape splendidly and offers readers insights into the manner in which Ingrid dreams. Soft figures and blurring lines portray a sense of unreality without ever losing clarity; fragments from a possible drowning on the first page are all the more effective because the details are distinguishable. But overlapping and non-typical layouts combine with a regularly changing point of view to differentiate this space from the harsh realities of life in the late Elizabethan era.

This contrasts splendidly against Cloonan's portrayal of the waking world. Sharp lines, rich inking, and solid grids ground every moment spent in Ingrid's village with the dull realities of peasant life lacking the blurred effects of tantalizing dark dreams. Whereas Lotay's work portrays Ingrid's inner desires and emotional complexity, Cloonan's figures provide emotions on their faces and frames with unerring accuracy. Ingrid's yearning for her husband and his cold rejection provides a rich subtext suggesting deeper motives within both of them.

Even as the narrative relies more upon these waking sequences to dispatch with dialogue and exposition, Cloonan utilizes dense grids filled with details to compress information and make each new panel a rewarding reading experience. It's this density that makes Somna #1 read as a much more satisfying installment than most serialized comics. By the issue's end there are a clearly defined set of characters with complex motivations and relationships in a fully realized setting. Adding the supernatural intrigues offered at night atop all of this produces a first issue that's as satisfying as the best pilots on television.

There will doubtless be a space (and need) to discuss the marital intrigues, erotic temptations, and gendered power dynamics of Somna; the first issue alone is rich with thematic subtext drawing readers into a setting far beyond but undeniably connected to their own. But the wonder of Somna #1 lies in how that place, its people, and the story they have to tell are introduced. Meeting Sigurd's friends and her husband's victims in the village while lapsing into her dark dreams at night offers both aesthetic and literary pleasures that are best found on the page. What's undeniable is the talent and ambition on display in this first issue making Somna a series all keen-eyed comics readers will want to seek out.

Published by DSTLRY

On November 22, 2023

Written by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay

Art by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay

Colors by Lee Loughridge, Dee Cunniffe, and Tula Lotay

Letters by Lucas Gattoni

Cover by Becky Cloonan

Despite being the protagonist through the Scream franchise's first four films, Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott was reduced to a large cameo role in Scream V before being removed from the call sheet with Scream VI. As it stands now, it seems as if Campbell will also not appear in Scream VII. Even then, the actor says she harbors no "ill will" toward the films in the franchise she doesn't appear in.

"I watched it until two weeks ago. It took me a minute, I don't know why," Campbell said during a spotlight panel at Monster-Mania Con this month (via Deadline). "I actually thought they did a really good job. I think the cast are really powerful, wonderful actors."

She added, "I don't wish these movies ill will. I wanted the movie to be good. It's not like I'm sitting in my house going, 'I hope it sucks, I hope it doesn't do well.' I care about all the people involved. There's someone at the top who only thinks about money and that's their prerogative."

Talks about Campbell's return in Scream VI broke down after the actor claimed the studio wasn't paying her the rightful wage.

"I did not feel that what I was being offered equated to the value that I bring to this franchise, and have brought to this franchise, for 25 years," Campbell told PEOPLE Magazine last fall. "And as a woman in this business, I think it's really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued."

She added, "I honestly don't believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man. And in my soul, I just couldn't do that. I couldn't walk on set feeling that -- feeling undervalued and feeling the unfairness, or lack of fairness, around that."

Though she's not currently attached to Scream VII, studio executives may be looking to make a change after Melissa Barrera was fired from the project on Tuesday due to controversial comments made on social media.

Scream V and Scream VI are streaming on Paramount+. Scream VII is in development and has yet to set a release date.

Melissa Barrera - the actress best known as the face of the new Scream movie franchise - has reportedly been dropped from Scream 7, which is already in development. Word of Barrera Scream VII exit started to float around the Internet today; however, the reports are stating that she was actually let go from the franchise a while back and that the news is just now coming to light.

Word is that Melissa Barrera sparked controversy (and eventually backlash) with a series of Instagram stories she posted back in October 2023, commenting on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The Islamist militant group Hamas launched a coordinated massacre of Israeli citizens on October 7, 20230, sparking a fierce conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip region and sparking an even larger debate/argument across the world. Average citizens, celebrities, and world figures alike all got in on the discussion, and inevitably careers and lives were affected by some of the heated exchanges and/or posts that happened afterward.

A Reddit post captured some of what Melissa Barrera had to say in her IG stories - including one post of both the Palestinian flag and the flag of our native country, Mexico, with the attached caption "I too come from a colonized country" / "Palestine WILL be free" while quoting a famous line from Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos: "they tried to bury us, they didn't know we were seeds".

In a longer and far more direct post, Barrera wrote "I have been actively looking for videos and information about the Palestinian side for the last 2 weeks or so, following accounts etc. Why? Because western media only shows the other side. Why they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself. Usually the algorithm on social media gets the gist. Well... My discover page on IG will ONLY show me videos showing and talking about the Israeli side. Censorship is very real. Palestinians know this, they know the world has been trying to make them invisible for decades. Keep sharing."

Another post showed a video reel of the Palestinian protest marches that occurred in the days and weeks following Israel's counterattacks. The response by Israel against Gaza, in lieu of what Hamas did, has angered various Islamic peoples and those championing the plight of innocent civilians being caught up in and killed by the escalating level of crossfire and deadly ordnance strikes (missiles) in the region. Melissa Barrera is far from the only celebrity to take issue with Isareal's tactics - but it wouldn't be that shocking to learn that the studio and executives behind Scream took issue with Barrera sharing offensive and/or discriminatory conspiracy notions like Western media being controlled and orchestrated. The "why they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself..." line definitely sounds like it ventures into some dark territory...

Melissa Barrera standing with Palestine and her words on mainstream censorship.
by u/oswaldcobblepot99 in Fauxmoi

Scream V and Scream VI revitalized the franchise like few other franchise reboots could. Scream 6 ended up being a franchise record-setter, earning more domestically in the US and Canada than any other installment, and hitting overall numbers ($169 million worldwide on a $30 million budget) not seen since Scream 2 and the franchise's best heyday. Barrera had solidified her character Sam Carpenter (daughter of original Ghostface killer, Billy Loomis) as a scream-queen icon, right up there alongside Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott. That said, Scream VI also elevated Sam's half-sister Tara to main character/scream queen status, as well; Tara is played by Netflix's Wednesday star Jenna Ortega, who has inarguably become a much bigger mainstream star than Barrera. Scream 7 has all the runway needed to kill Sam offscreen or send her away (for a possible return later), while Tara (Ortega) leads the next installment of the franchise.

Scream V and Scream VI are streaming on Paramount+. Scream VII is in development.

Black Mirror is coming back to Netflix for Season 7. Variety reports that the streaming favorite is a go for production to continue in late 2023. Series executive producers Annabel Jones and Jessica Rhoads are supposed to be returning for the next season. Black Mirror Season 7 has a pretty wild act to follow. Season 6 saw the series hit the Top 10 in over 92 countries and enjoyed success in most English-speaking countries. Black Mirror had some record-setting performance and Netflix is hoping for the same with the upcoming season. Series creator Charlie Brooker talked to TUDUM about trying to keep the series fresh as it ages earlier this year. It's been a challenge, but the crew has risen to the occasion.

"Partly as a challenge, and partly to keep things fresh for both me and the viewer, I began this season by deliberately upending some of my own core assumptions about what to expect," Brooker said. "Consequently, this time, alongside some of the more familiar Black Mirror tropes we've also got a few new elements, including some I've previously sworn blind the show would never do, to stretch the parameters of what 'a Black Mirror episode' even is. The stories are all still tonally Black Mirror through-and-through -- but with some crazy swings and more variety than ever before."

How Has Black Mirror Done With Netflix?

There have been various moments of critique for Black Mirror during this run on Netflix. A lot of fans think that being included on the streaming platform has been a net negative for Charlie Brooker's show. But, in an interview with The Guardian, he met those comments head-on. The creative explained how having differing perspectives has helped Black Mirror. Some may have preferred the British version, but Brooker thinks there's room for different types of stories.

"One of the criticisms we sometimes get is, 'I prefer the show when it was British and everyone in it was miserable and everything smelled a little bit of sh-t and all the stories were horrible,'" Brooker told the outlet during a recent event. "'And then it's gone to Netflix and suddenly everything's sunny and happy and everyone has wonderful teeth, and it's full of Hollywood stars and it's lost that edge.'"

The creator added, "I was aware we're going to be on a global platform now, so we've got to make these stories a bit more international. And I wanted to mix it up a bit, as in not just keep doing bleak-a-thons."

What's Different In Black Mirror Season 6?

Netflix describes the most recent season of Black Mirror: "The show looks inwards, at the darker aspects of humanity and society. This is done through the theme of technology, hence the second meaning. The black mirror is the screen that rules our lives. Taking contemporary phenomena (ranging from the wild popularity of talent shows on TV to the impact of social media and smartphones on our lives) as a starting point and speculate how such phenomena could/would evolve in the future. Each episode tells a different story with different protagonists and focuses on a different theme."

Black Mirror Season 6 is currently streaming on Netflix.

Are you happy to hear about Season 7 of Black Mirror? Let us know in the comments!

Fans of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will have reason to celebrate this month, as a major update is on the way. The update will include a free new map, Nancy's House. Nancy is a new killer making her debut in the game, and there will also be a potential new victim named Danny. While the map is free, the two new characters will be paid content, and will cost $9.99 each. All of this new content will be dropping at the same time as the game's big new patch, which should fix a number of different issues.

Publisher Gun Media has released a new trailer for the game's content, which offers a closer look at the new map, as well as the new characters. In the trailer, the new character Danny can be seen looking for his missing girlfriend. His search brings him to Nancy's House, where the seemingly sweet old lady invites him in and even offers him some tea. Things quickly take a turn as the video shows a photo of Nancy with Cook, and the woman reveals that she's at least partly responsible for the death of Danny's girlfriend. After bludgeoning Danny with a hammer, he tries to make his escape, running out the front door. Unfortunately, it seems there's just as much horror outside as inside! The full trailer can be found in the Tweet below.

Be careful whose door you knock on... pic.twitter.com/wnEhCfYYx7

-- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (@TXChainSawGame) November 20, 2023

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Update Release Date

The new update for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will be arriving on November 28th. Nancy's House marks the first significant free update the game has received since launching back in August. Since then, the game has mostly gotten bug fixes and paid content in the form of new skins. While some of that new content has been fairly high-profile (like Nicotero Leatherface), that hasn't excited players as much as something substantial like a new map. Hopefully the content will be worth the wait, and give fans reason to jump back into the game.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Platforms

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game's new update will be available to players on all of these platforms. The game actually launched on Xbox Game Pass, and is even accessible through Xbox Cloud Gaming. With Black Friday quickly approaching, discounts for the game have been made available at multiple retailers. In fact, the PlayStation Store currently has the game offered at a 20% discount, knocking it down to $31.99 from its normal $39.99. That sale ends on November 28th at 2:59 a.m. ET, so those interested in taking advantage should do so sooner, rather than later!

How do you feel about this new update for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? From what's been shown, how do you feel about this new map? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

The first season of the new Goosebumps TV series brought a number of titles from R.L. Stine's iconic book series to life. Say Cheese and Die!, Night of the Living Dummy, and The Haunted Mask were among some of the most popular Goosebumps books adapted in the first season of the Hulu and Disney+ series. They were far from the only ones, but Stine wrote so many Goosebumps books that there are still a ton of options to pull from in future seasons.

Goosebumps hasn't officially been renewed for Season 2 just yet, but the ending of the Season 1 finale clearly sets the series up for more. So, assuming there is going to be a sophomore season of Goosebumps, which of Stine's books could the show bring to television?

ComicBook.com recently spoke to Goosebumps executive producers Rob Letterman, Nicholas Stoller, and Hilary Winston, and we asked about the books at the top of their wish lists.

"I'm pretty sure Nick is going to say The Girl Who Cried Monster, that's my guess on that," Winston said. "There's The Werewolf of Fever Swamp. There's a lot of classics that you know. We couldn't obviously do all of them. Stay out of the Basement, which I always talk about because I love that one. There's just so many good ones, and it's like you forget about them. And then when you're going through the list, you're like, 'Oh my gosh, yeah, there's that one. There's that one.'"

Letterman chimed in and put a lot of emphasis on Welcome to Dead House, the very first Goosebumps book that R.L. Stine wrote. It was initially published in 1992.

"I love the Welcome to Dead House book. It's the first [Goosebumps]. And I remember R.L. Stine talking about how it was the first one," Letterman told us. "They didn't know what was going to happen with Goosebumps. He had no idea it was going to be a phenomenon. It was just what it was. It was a writing assignment he did and he said it scared the crap out of kids. It's what he discovered after writing, and he had to dial it back a little bit after that one. You know, the next books going on. But I do love that book. The premise is terrifying. It's just a really scary read."

What would you like to see happen in Goosebumps Season 2? Let us know in the comments!

[Spoiler alert for the Fear the Walking Dead series finale.] When Fear the Walking Dead ended its eight-season run on Sunday, the two-episode series finale at long last revealed what happened to Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) -- and even Skidmark the cat. But viewers were left without answers about what became of other unaccounted for characters: rabbi Jacob (Peter Jacobson) and Rabinowitz siblings Sarah (Mo Collins) and Wendell (Daryl Mitchell). The last we saw the missing survivors, they were escaping radioactive Texas by raft in the penultimate episode of season 7, and then... nothing.

After a seven-year time skip started season 8, Sarah, Wendell, and Jacob were feared dead when Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) told Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) in the "Anton" midseason premiere that the group who washed up on the shores of Georgia were separated. Some, like Morgan Jones (Lennie James), ended up at PADRE, while others were "struggling to survive" in the wilderness, Strand said. He then suggested that those who didn't make it to PADRE died from starvation.

According to showrunners and series finale writers Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss, Sarah, Wendell, and Jacob are alive -- just off-screen -- and trucking out east as part of Luciana's (Danay Garc?a) Gearheads group that operates a road network stretching across the country.

"One story thread that we had initially planned to address was seeing what happened to Sarah, Wendell, and Rabbi Jacob. And when we got into the planning of the final six episodes, we just didn't have the room for it," Chambliss told EW. "And looking back, it's a bummer to us that we didn't get to say goodbye to those characters, but it was always in our imagination that they are part of Luciana's crew out there keeping the roads clear between Texas and the East Coast."

In a postmortem Q&A with ComicBook, the showrunners revealed that their script for the 51-minute Fear the Walking Dead series finale initially boarded out to 22 days. But the filmmakers had to fit that into just 12 days.

"We had a lot of cuts to make," Goldberg explained. "But if you saw that version of the script versus what showed up on screen, it is fundamentally the same story. We just had to make some concessions for production reasons, but the integrity of the story that we wanted to tell, it's all there. And that did not change."

Read our full Fear finale postmortem with Goldberg and Chambliss, and our series finale Q&A with Kim Dickens.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) for more Fear the Walking Dead series finale coverage.

Filmmaker Robert Eggers has been working on a revival of the 1922 silent film Nosferatu for years, and while the production has seen a number of obstacles get in the way of its development, a first-look photo from the film confirms that the highly anticipated project is finally becoming a reality. The image comes courtesy of Empire Magazine, and while the photo doesn't reveal an official look at the titular character, it offers up an ominous look at Count Orlok's shadowy claw over the face of star Lily-Rose Depp. You can check out the photo below before the new Nosferatu lands in theaters in 2024.

"It's a scary film. It's a horror movie. It's a Gothic horror movie," Eggers shared with the outlet. "And I do think that there hasn't been an old-school Gothic movie that's actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case."

He added, "It's even more Ellen's story than previous versions ... And Lily-Rose is absolutely phenomenal."

The new reimagining is "a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Lily Rose-Depp) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Bill Skarsg?rd) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him."

Nosferatu also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Simon McBurney, and Ralph Ineson.

"I'll say that Bill has so transformed, I'm fearful that he might not get the credit that he deserves because he's just... he's not there," Eggers detailed of Skarsg?rd's performance. "He felt like honouring who had come before him. It's all very subtle ... But I think the main thing is that he's even more a folk vampire. In my opinion he looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman, and in a way that we've never actually seen what an actual dead Transylvanian nobleman would look like and be dressed like."

Stay tuned for updates on the new Nosferatu before it hits theaters in 2024.

Are you looking forward to the reboot? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

The world of The Conjuring is still going strong ten years later. Debuting in 2013 with the standalone The Conjuring, the real-life stories from Ed and Lorraine Warren's cryptic catalog have been reimagined on the big screen. Following the success of the first movie, Warner Bros. Discovery launched Annabelle, a spin-off based on the red-haired doll from the Warrens' trophy room. Both The Conjuring and Annabelle garnered enough success to get their own trilogies. That acclaim gave the green light for another spin-off: The Nun. The eight projects within The Conjuring Universe have the obvious connective tissue, but they have yet to do a deliberate super-sized crossover event.

Michael Chaves Details The Warrens' Surprise Return

If The Nun II's post-credits scene is anything to go off of, that could be changing sooner than later.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, The Nun II director Michael Chaves opened up about Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren's (Vera Farmiga) surprise cameo at the end of the film via archived footage from The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

"It wasn't part of our original photography," Chaves revealed. "I think a lot of audiences kept on saying they had continuity questions because even though I think that it definitely ends with a nod to the fact that [Maurice is] still possessed, I think some people were not sure. The first Nun movie was very clear about that, Maurice goes on to be exorcised by the Warrens, and I think that people wanted something like that.

"Of course we can't just repeat what was done in the first movie. I had cut that scene from the first one. I'm amazed that people have picked up that it's recycled. I put that into just connected to the rest of the timeline, so you know that it was leading up to this moment, but beyond that, I can't speak to what's happening in the fourth Conjuring."

As Chaves alludes to, a fourth Conjuring film is in early development, which would be the ninth installment in the franchise's greater universe.

"There's a generation out there that The Conjuring was their first scary movie. I think one of my first scary movies was one of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, and then I kind of fell in love with that series. It's funny. This is like that to a whole nother generation," Chaves said when asked why he believes The Conjuring Universe has such strong longevity. "I think it leans into its classic studio horror movie roots, but it also just really resonates for this generation. I think that this is really their movie, this is their horror series."

The Nun II is now available on home media.

When a new Saw sequel was announced as Saw X, fans were immediately intrigued by the project and wondered if it could mark the return of Tobin Bell's John Kramer, with a new featurette for the film's home video release confirming that plans to bring back Bell had gone back years. While 2021's Spiral: From the Book of Saw was meant to expand the mythology of the franchise, the new featurette that the idea to bring back Kramer went back to before that film, which put all Saw X plans on hold. Check out the new featurette for Saw X above before it hits 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on November 21st. Saw X is out now on Digital.

Per press release, "John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most chilling installment of the Saw franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw's most personal game. Set between the events of Saw I and II, this story finds a sick and desperate John traveling to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of obtaining a miracle cure for his cancer -- only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, John returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through a series of ingenious and terrifying traps.

"The 4K transfer for Saw X features Jigsaw's highly anticipated return in eye-exploding HDR10, along with a terror-inducing Dolby Atmos audio mix. Special features include a multipart 'making of' documentary called Reawakening, over a dozen deleted scenes, and more, totaling over three hours of bonus material."

Special features on the home video release are as follows:

• Audio Commentary with Director-Editor Kevin Greutert, Cinematographer Nick Matthews, and Production Designer Anthony Stabley
• Reawakening Multipart Making-of Documentary:
• I Want to Play a Game: Bleeding New Life into the Saga
• This Time It's Personal: Characters and Casting
• Another Time, Another Place: Locations and Cinematography
• There Will Be Blood: Production Design and Make-up
• Leave Nothing to Chance: Post-Production
• Live or Die: Release and Legacy
• Drawing Inspiration: Illustrated Scene Breakdowns with Director-Editor Kevin Greutert
  
• Make-Up Department Trap Tests
  
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailer

Saw X lands on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD on November 21st. Saw X is out now on Digital.

Will you be adding the film to your collection? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

[Spoiler alert for the Fear the Walking Dead series finale.] In the end, Fear the Walking Dead was about hope. Sunday's two-episode series finale ended with a symbolic death (Kim Dickens' Madison Clark), an actual death (Daniel Sharman's Troy Otto), and the reveal that a supposed death was a lie (the return of Alycia Debnam-Carey's Alicia Clark). But there was also life: Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), Daniel Salazar (Rub?n Blades), Luciana (Danay Garc?a), June Dorie (Jenna Elfman), Dwight (Austin Amelio), Sherry (Christine Evangelista), and Tracy Otto (Antonella Rose) all made it out of Fear alive, with the Clark family legacy living on as MADRE.

Read on for our Fear the Walking Dead postmortem with showrunners Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss. Also read our post-finale Q&A with Kim Dickens and our penultimate episode recap ("Fighting Like You") and the series finale recap ("The Road Ahead").

Fear the Walking Dead Finale Ending, Explained: How the Alicia Clark cameo came together

IAN GOLDBERG: It was always a dream of ours, and we had started talking about it in season seven when we knew we were going to bring Madison back onto the show. And we were talking to Alycia about it all the way back then, just planting this seed of an idea that we had for how they would ultimately come back together and reunite in the end. And it's ultimately why we built season eight the way that we did, and in particular [season] 8B, this question of Alicia and Madison's legacy. And it felt undeniable to us that the show had to end with a reunion between the two of them. And we are so, so happy that everything worked out.

How Alycia Debnam-Carey returned after departing in Fear TWD season 7

ANDREW CHAMBLISS: It was always a concern that schedules wouldn't line up, but we just tried to stay in communication with her and keep her up to date on the direction the story was heading. And then as we got closer to the actual production dates, we were fortunately able to work it out. But yeah, she was working on some other shows. She was in Australia, so it was lots of phone calls and just trying to stay up to date, but we made sure that we were going to be able to make it happen because it was that important to us.

On bringing Madison Clark "full circle" to "No One's Gone"

IAN GOLDBERG: It was very important to me and Andrew as we came into this final season that we were not only bringing stories to a conclusion, but also having this feeling that things were coming full circle for our characters. And when Madison made her heroic sacrifice in season 4, "no one's gone until they're gone" was her mantra. It was the thing that she instilled in her kids and was her legacy when they believed that she was dead back then. And her return in season 7 into season 8 is a test of that because the world is, in many different ways, pushing against that for Madison. And I think it's a struggle for all characters in Fear and across the apocalypse of sort of pragmatism, and what's safe, and how do you just stay alive versus what's worth staying alive for and fighting for beyond just survival? And that question drives Madison, ultimately, to a place of deep despair and darkness before she finally realizes that there are things worth fighting for and that there are things that can outlive you if you fight for them. And that legacy survives in her and Alicia and Tracy and all of the characters. So our real goal was to end the series in a place of hope.

ANDREW CHAMBLISS: [The series finale] was all about landing that idea of hope. But I think in addition to that, we want to -- without getting too meta -- comment on the power of storytelling and how your actions can live on beyond you. And we see that back in season 4, the first time Madison made the sacrifice, how it had this negative impact. But by the time we finally got the story of what happened at the stadium through Al's [Maggie Grace] interviews, we saw how that was starting to turn around. And here we see something very similar where we see Strand telling the story of what happened at PADRE to Tracy. And ultimately we see how that kind of reignites that small flame of hope in Tracy. And, ultimately, that pays dividends by reconnecting Madison and Alicia. And I think in maybe some ways, maybe subconsciously, we were just commenting on how stories can bring people hope. And I think that's what we were always kind of setting out to do with Fear: telling stories about people finding hope in a very dark world.

Why Troy Otto had to die

IAN GOLDBERG: I think it's about testing Madison's mantra of "no one's gone until they're gone." And in that moment, at the end of episode 11, Madison's faced with this dilemma of it seems like Troy has changed, it seems that he is worthy of redemption based on his actions. But Madison has seen time and again how you can get burned for that. And I think there's a real question in her mind of: "Can Troy be trusted? Is it worth the risk?" And in that moment she decides it isn't, that the more pragmatic choice is to kill him.
And that's a very dark moment for Madison. But she's doing it because she believes that's what she has to do to protect her family. She's doubting "no one's gone until they're gone" at that moment. And the finale is all about bringing her back around to realizing that she was wrong and bringing her back to that place of hope and realizing that her initial philosophy was correct.

On what happens if Madison doesn't kill Troy

ANDREW CHAMBLISS: I think it's a very good question and I think it's one we won't know the answer to. But I would say I think the one kind of distinction between the Troy that we knew in season 3 and the Troy that we've seen change over the course of this back half of season 8 is that he is fighting for his daughter. And I think particularly in the penultimate episode, he's starting to see the error of his ways and he's starting to see that maybe just maybe he needs to change for Tracy. So I think there's a very good chance that he could have changed for Tracy, for Madison, for everyone at PADRE.

What didn't make it into the Fear finale?

IAN GOLDBERG: The biggest thing about the final episode is that it was huge. And I can't remember exactly how many days our initial script boarded out to, but it was enormous. I want to say it was like 20 days or something.
ANDREW CHAMBLISS: It was 22 days.
IAN GOLDBERG: 22 days, and we had to squeeze it into 12. So we had a lot of cuts to make. But if you saw that version of the script versus what showed up on screen, it is fundamentally the same story. We just had to make some concessions for production reasons, but the integrity of the story that we wanted to tell, it's all there. And that did not change.

Will there be a Fear TWD spinoff?

ANDREW CHAMBLISS: I think we were given the freedom to end these characters where we wanted to, and we're kind given the edict that Fear's story should come first. And we really did try to craft these stories so they felt like a satisfying conclusion. But we also wanted to create this feeling that there is a next chapter in all these characters' lives. Whether or not we see that, that's a question for Scott [Gimple, TWD Universe Chief Content Officer] and for AMC, but I think there's definitely lots of room for these characters to continue to grow and develop.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) for more Fear the Walking Dead series finale coverage.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

[Spoiler alert for the Fear the Walking Dead series finale.] Fear the Walking Dead ended with a new beginning for Madison (Kim Dickens) and Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey). The first hour of the two-episode series finale followed Madison as she sought to avenge the daughter that Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) said he killed, having taken the skeletal remains of her amputated arm as a trophy. "This is all I have left of her," Madison told Troy... only to then stab him with the bones still protruding from Alicia's severed arm. In the end, Troy died by Madison's hand (and, technically, Alicia's).

But that wasn't the only twist. With blood oozing out of his mouth, a dying Troy told Madison the truth about his daughter, Tracy Otto (Antonella Rose). She's Alicia's daughter, and Troy took her infant offspring to make up for losing the daughter he would have had -- if Alicia's philosophy of helping people didn't get his pregnant wife killed. That's why Troy killed Alicia, and that's why Troy's dying words were asking Madison to fight for Tracy like she fought for her own kids.

After losing faith in the belief she instilled in Nick and Alicia when the stadium fell -- "no one's gone until they're gone" -- Madison decided to save her granddaughter rather than risk their lives saving PADRE from being overrun by a walker herd. But when Tracy shot Madison as revenge for killing her father, Madison made an about-turn to save Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) and everyone on the island the same way she did before: by leading the walkers into PADRE, setting it aflame, and locking herself inside so the others could escape.

However, Troy lied. It turned out that Troy left Alicia for dead after a bloody fight that ended with Alicia impaling her attacker (explaining why he had her arm). The truth is that Tracy is Troy's daughter -- not Alicia's -- and the girl's mother, Serena Otto, did die because she believed what Alicia believed: no one's gone until they're gone. That means Madison, who survived sacrificing herself and was pulled from the rubble by... Tracy.

In the show's final moments, Alicia returned (alive!), reunited with Madison, and revealed she heard the story of Madison's sacrifice from MADRE: survivors from PADRE who mobilized to help people in Madison's name. With Alicia and Madison both believed dead and inspiring people in death, their legacy is one of hope. Madison, Alicia, and Tracy then set off to where they could help people most: Los Angeles, California. "It's never gonna be what it was," Madison said. "That doesn't mean we can't start over." As Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" played viewers out in the closing moments of the series finale, the Clarks headed home to Los Angeles to end Fear the Walking Dead.

Showrunners Explain Fear the Walking Dead Ending With Alicia Clark

According to showrunners and episode writers Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, it was always the plan to end Fear the Walking Dead with Debnam-Carey's return to the series and Alicia's reunion with Madison. Debnam-Carey departed the Walking Dead spinoff last year after seven seasons -- just one episode before Dickens made her own long-awaited return after being "killed off" in season 4.

"It was always a dream of ours," Goldberg exclusively told ComicBook about the Alicia cameo. "We had started talking about it in season 7 when we knew we were going to bring Madison back onto the show. And we were talking to Alycia about it all the way back then, just planting this seed of an idea that we had for how they would ultimately come back together and reunite in the end. And it's ultimately why we built season 8 the way that we did, and in particular 8B, this question of Alicia and Madison's legacy."

"It felt undeniable to us that the show had to end with a reunion between the two of them," Goldberg added. "And we are so, so happy that everything worked out."

On Alycia Debnam-Carey's Return for the Fear the Walking Dead Finale

Because Debnam-Carey went on to lead another series (the Dominican Republic-shot Saint X), were there logistical issues with bringing the Australian actress to the Georgia set of Fear?

"It was always a concern that schedules wouldn't line up, but we just tried to stay in communication with her and keep her up to date on the direction the story was heading. And then as we got closer to the actual production dates, we were fortunately able to work it out," Chambliss revealed. "But yeah, she was working on some other shows. She was in Australia, so it was a lot of phone calls and just trying to stay up to date, but we made sure that we were going to be able to make it happen because it was that important to us."

Kim Dickens Reacts to Alicia Cameo: "Alycia Wanted to Come Back"

The plan to bring Dickens and Debnam-Carey back to end the series with a Madison and Alicia reunion dates back to 2020. AMC announced in December 2021 that Dickens would guest star in the final episode of season 7 before returning as a series regular in season 8, but Debnam-Carey's series-ending cameo was kept under wraps: throughout the final season, Alicia's fate was left a mystery after a seven-year time jump.

"It felt like Alicia coming back had to happen. I think I would've been really disappointed if she didn't. But given that, when we were first discussing it in 2020, Alycia had left the show," Dickens told ComicBook. "She'd done the show since [2015]. I believe she started when she was 21 and was finishing at 29, basically. So, that's a lot. A lot happens in your 20s, and it's a lot of growing. We've all grown in this show, personally and professionally and everything, but I think for her growth and her next step, I think she needed to go do other things. And I respected that and we talked about it and everything."

"When I talked to Ian and Andrew, they were like, 'Alycia left, but we put it in her head that we might ask her back for something doable.' And I think she was like, 'Give me a minute and chat to me later.' So we really didn't know," Dickens added, revealing that she and co-star and producer Colman Domingo -- who helped facilitate Dickens' own return to the show -- were asked to approach Debnam-Carey about potentially reprising her role one last time.

"Colman and I were asked to make a phone call. It was in the script and they're like, 'If you guys could make the phone call,' and we're family -- we are. And so the truth is that I don't think we needed to make the phone call, because Alycia wanted to do it," Dickens said. "It felt really good to her to come back and finish it, too. She's loved the show. She wanted to do it right, too. It just feels good in our heart. It's like we put so much into these characters and these shows and some of them really hurt when they're ended prematurely or what have you. We're artists and sometimes it feels really good to see it through. So I think Alycia wanted to come back. I know she did."

After all, no one's gone until they're gone.

Read our Fear the Walking Dead finale postmortem Q&A with showrunners Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss and our series finale Q&A with Kim Dickens.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

[Spoiler alert for the Fear the Walking Dead series finale.] No one's gone until they're gone. "The Road Ahead" series finale of Fear the Walking Dead ended by bringing the series full circle: with Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and her daughter Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) alive and headed home to Los Angeles for the first time since the outbreak of 2010. The Clark family matriarch already returned from the grave after seemingly being killed off during season 4 of Fear -- and it's a fate Dickens didn't want repeated as she resumed her role for the eighth and final season of the AMC Walking Dead spinoff.

"I was very happy to make it out alive. I didn't want to have to die again, and all the speculation that goes with that," Dickens told ComicBook in a post-finale interview.

In the penultimate episode, Madison stabbed and killed Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman), believing she was avenging Alicia and protecting PADRE. "I'm done with second chances," Madison said, driving the skeletal remains of Alicia's arm into the guts of the man who supposedly killed her daughter. "Troy was right. That's what got Alicia killed." Disillusioned with PADRE, Madison deserted Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) as the island was overrun by a walker herd and abandoned the belief she instilled in Nick and Alicia when she sacrificed herself at the stadium: "No one's gone until they're gone."

"This is what happens when you try to build something better. You end up giving people hope. End up putting them in danger. You end up getting them killed," Madison said after Tracy (Antonella Rose), who she thought was Alicia's daughter, drew a gun and pulled the trigger. But Madison survived and then saved everyone on the island the same way she did at the stadium: by leading the walkers into PADRE, setting it aflame, and locking herself inside so the others could escape. And Madison Clark was gone.

"It was very important to me and Andrew [Chambliss] as we came into this final season that we were not only bringing stories to a conclusion, but also having this feeling that things were coming full circle for our characters," showrunner Ian Goldberg told ComicBook. "When Madison made her heroic sacrifice in season 4, 'no one's gone until they're gone' was her mantra. It was the thing that she instilled in her kids and was her legacy when they believed that she was dead back then. And her return in season 7 into season 8 is a test of that because the world is, in many different ways, pushing against that for Madison. And I think it's a struggle for all characters in Fear and across the apocalypse of pragmatism, and what's safe, and how do you just stay alive versus what's worth staying alive for and fighting for beyond just survival?"

"And that question drives Madison, ultimately, to a place of deep despair and darkness before she finally realizes that there are things worth fighting for and that there are things that can outlive you if you fight for them," Goldberg explained. "And that legacy survives in her and Alicia and Tracy and all of the characters. So our real goal was to end the series in a place of hope."

Madison's death in the finale is a metaphorical one, but her apparent death and the fall of PADRE inspires the survivors to mobilize as MADRE in Madison's name.

"In addition to that, we want to -- without getting too meta -- comment on the power of storytelling and how your actions can live on beyond you," added showrunner Andrew Chambliss. "We see that back in season 4, the first time Madison made the sacrifice, how it had this negative impact. But by the time we finally got the story of what happened at the stadium through Al's [Maggie Grace] interviews, we saw how that was starting to turn around. And here we see something very similar, where we see Strand telling the story of what happened at PADRE to Tracy. And ultimately we see how that kind of reignites that small flame of hope in Tracy."

Chambliss continued, "And, ultimately, that pays dividends by reconnecting Madison and Alicia. And I think in maybe some ways, maybe subconsciously, we were just commenting on how stories can bring people hope. And I think that's what we were always kind of setting out to do with Fear: telling stories about people finding hope in a very dark world."

COMICBOOK: After coming back to Fear the Walking Dead and having Madison be alive at the end of the series, how are you feeling about how Madison's story wrapped up here after eight years?

KIM DICKENS: I quite liked it. I spoke to Ian and Andrew during the pandemic when they were sort of pitching me the idea of bringing Madison back and how they would do it. And I got on the Zoom with them and I had no idea what they were going to pitch to me. I had zero idea, and they pitched that story of being a prisoner of PADRE and owned by PADRE, and then how I was going to come full circle in the end and start making our way back home. And I just thought it was brilliant. I got very excited about it, so I'm pleased with the way we tied it up.

When I spoke to Ian and Andrew, they told me they built the final season around the ending with Madison and Alicia reuniting. When they mapped out season 8 for you and made their pitch, what was your reaction when you found that A) Madison was making it out alive and B) Alycia was coming back?

I was very happy to make it out alive. I didn't want to have to die again, and all the speculation that goes that. It felt like Alicia coming back had to happen. I think I would've been really disappointed if she didn't. But given that, when we were first discussing it in 2020, Alycia had left the show. She'd done the show since [2015]. I believe she started when she was 21 and was finishing at 29, basically. So that's a lot. A lot happens in your 20s and it's a lot of growing. We've all grown in this show, personally and professionally and everything, but I think for her growth and her next step, I think she needed to go do other things. And I respected that and we talked about it and everything.

And so when I talked to Ian and Andrew, they were like, "Alycia left, but we put it in her head that we might ask her back for something doable." And I think she was like, "Give me a minute and chat to me later." So we really didn't know ... Honestly, who knows how much I could say, but Colman and I were asked to make a phone call. It was in the script and they're like, "If you guys could make the phone call," and we're family -- we are. And so the truth is that I don't think we needed to make the phone call, because Alycia wanted to do it. It felt really good to her to come back and finish it, too. She's loved the show. She wanted to do it right, too. It just feels good in our heart. It's like we put so much into these characters and these shows and some of them really hurt when they're ended prematurely or what have you. We're artists and sometimes it feels really good to see it through. So I think Alycia wanted to come back. I know she did.

On the theme of second chances, Ian and Andrew said Madison sacrificing herself for PADRE the same way she did at the stadium was about ending Fear with hope. I wanted to get your take on Madison's metaphorical "death," and Madison's legacy ultimately being MADRE.

I thought that was really clever. I feel like Madison had to sort of learn from Alicia and step out of the way in order for her legacy to continue to make a difference and be sort of noble, because I think Madison was going to continue to get in her own way. But yeah, I thought it was more hopeful. Leading into that, Madison was like, "Look, nobody else can get their hands dirty. I can get my hands dirty, because they're so dirty right now." So I think she does genuinely sacrifice herself. And then in the end when she's left with like, "Oh, well, maybe I did do something good and now I can just let that be." I think it does allow for some hope. I think they would probably go on together and try to help in different ways.

Madison starts as a counselor. She cares about kids. She caress about people from bad homes, and tries to help them, sort them out at school. But even the most noblest are really called to the carpet and challenged. I think what works about the show is that an audience member can say, "What would I do? What would I do in that moment?" And that's fine. That's what we're there for. The characters are there to sort of serve that and flesh that out. That's interesting to watch. That's life.

The series finale brings closure with Madison and Alicia, but it's also open-ended enough for a spinoff -- or for these characters to return down the road. "No one's gone until they're gone," so is Madison gone for you?

It felt to me, during this season 8 finale, it did feel like closure. That said, I love this character. I've played it for so many years. I love it. I love the job. I love the crew that comes together. I love the cast that comes together, that's able to do shows like this, because they're tough shows, and I love it and I love the franchise as a whole. So never say never. Absolutely, I would always consider it if somebody said, "Hey, would you consider it?" Of course I would. I've loved this show. I love the franchise, I love all the actors that I've worked with, the entire crew and showrunners and writers and everything. And I still have my leather jacket, too. So I've got that.

But that crew -- and it is not easy -- that crew especially, it's almost like a creative church. It's like it's a completely harmonizing experience ... that thing, when you create that, when you're in collaboration like that, it is magic and it is something to miss, there. And I just came across pictures of season 3 and I was in a tank in Mexico and I was doing underwater stuff and there's a picture of James Armstrong, our stunt coordinator, right there with me in scuba gear, just right there, talking to me. And we're laughing as if I wasn't going to have to go underwater for 45 seconds. But yeah, it's fortunate to have had it. If that's all it is, my God, we've been fortunate.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) for more Fear the Walking Dead series finale coverage.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

[Spoiler alert for the Fear the Walking Dead series finale.] Everyone deserves a second chance... everyone except Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) on Sunday's "Fighting Like You" episode of Fear the Walking Dead. Believing that Troy killed her daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), a vengeful Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) set out to kill Troy before he could lead a walker herd to PADRE and take the island as a home for his daughter Tracy (Antonella Rose). Complicating matters was the return of PADRE's Crane (Daniel Rashid), who used the second chance that June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) gave him to try to retake PADRE because he blamed Madison for the death of his sister Shrike (Maya Eshet).

Madison spared Troy so he could take her to the horde his right-hand man Russell (Randy Bernales) was herding toward PADRE, even protecting him when Daniel Salazar (Rub?n Blades) and Luciana (Danay Garc?a) tried to kill him as payback for the deaths of Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) and their people gunned down in a shootout with Troy's men. As Troy buried his zombified wife, Serena, Troy told Madison why he murdered her daughter: because Alicia put the thinking in Serena's head that got her killed.

As Troy told it, Alicia answered their SOS when a pregnant Serena suffered a zombie's bite, amputated her arm, and then left to go help more people. Alicia inspired Serena, so she's to blame for Serena falling victim to a trap: when she answered a stranger's SOS, a marauder shot Serena, robbed her, and left her for dead. She eventually succumbed to her injuries and died in Troy's arms.

But violence begets violence, and that's what happened when Crane tracked Troy and Madison to a swamp, then sent them plunging into walker-infested waters to be devoured or drown in quicksand. Crane paid for his vendetta with his life as walkers ate him alive, only for Troy to save Madison by pulling her out of the swamp. As it turned out, Serena's dying wish was to make Troy promise to keep what Alicia believed in alive. He then disclosed Russell's location so PADRE could disperse the herd.

Troy then told Madison he would live up to the second chance Alicia gave him. Except he wouldn't: believing that second chances are what got her daughter killed, Madison stabbed and killed Troy with the skeletal remains of Alicia's arm. A decade after she seemingly bludgeoned him to death with a hammer, Troy Otto died at the hands of Madison Clark (and, technically, Alicia's). Tracy then found a zombified Troy in the woods and shot him, killing him a second time.

"It's about testing Madison's mantra of 'no one's gone until they're gone,'" Fear the Walking Dead showrunner Ian Goldberg told ComicBook about Troy's death. "And in that moment, at the end of episode 11, Madison's faced with this dilemma. It seems like Troy has changed, it seems that he is worthy of redemption based on his actions. But Madison has seen time and again how you can get burned for that. And I think there's a real question in her mind of: 'Can Troy be trusted? Is it worth the risk?' And in that moment she decides it isn't, that the more pragmatic choice is to kill him."

Madison murdering Troy is "a very dark moment for Madison," Goldberg continued. "But she's doing it because she believes that's what she has to do to protect her family. She's doubting 'no one's gone until they're gone' at that moment. And the finale is all about bringing her back around to realizing that she was wrong and bringing her back to that place of hope and realizing that her initial philosophy was correct." (See what the showrunners had to say about Madison's finale fate here.)

Did Troy deserve a second chance? "I think it's a very good question and I think it's one we won't know the answer to," showrunner Andrew Chambliss said. "But I would say I think the one kind of distinction between the Troy that we knew in season 3, and the Troy that we've seen change over the course of this back half of season 8, is that he is fighting for his daughter. And I think particularly in the penultimate episode, he's starting to see the error of his ways and he's starting to see that maybe, just maybe, he needs to change for Tracy. So I think there's a very good chance that he could have changed for Tracy, for Madison, for everyone at PADRE."

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) for more Fear the Walking Dead series finale coverage.

"There are certain things you always remember about your kids. No matter how old they get. No matter how much things change." So said Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) on the "No One's Gone" episode of Fear the Walking Dead, the spinoff series that's spanned Los Angeles, Mexico, Texas, and Georgia. Eight seasons and 113 episodes since Madison and her children -- her drug addict son Nick (Frank Dillane) and her daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) --first escaped zombie-plagued LA, this is the end of Fear the Walking Dead. But the end is the beginning, and that's where "The Road Ahead" series finale opens: the beginning.

Madison has visions of Nick and Alicia from before the fall. They're happy. They're smiling. They're alive. And Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) is dead, killed by Madison's hand. And Alicia's hand: Madison stabbed Troy to death with the skeletal remains of Alicia's severed arm, avenging the daughter he killed. "You have to fight for Tracy like you fought for Nick and Alicia," Troy told Madison with his dying words, revealing a bombshell: Tracy (Antonella Rose) isn't his daughter. She's Alicia's daughter, and she's the only family Madison has left.

Tracy has escaped into the woods with the St. Christopher medallion that was handed down from Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) to Alicia, and then from Alicia to Serena Otto. The necklace is supposed to bring luck and protection, and she'll need it: Madison and the others have fanned out to find Tracy after Troy's death. Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) have captured Troy's right-hand man Russell (Randy Bernales) and report that the herd he was leading toward PADRE has dispersed. Daniel (Rub?n Blades), fearing what Troy's fanatics will do to help his daughter, wants to get as far away from PADRE as possible to protect Luciana (Danay Garc?a).

Madison saves Tracy from walkers and justifies killing Troy as something that had to be done to protect PADRE. Tracy rejects the claim that Alicia was her mother and pushes Madison away, but with an injured ankle and the rest of Troy's zombie herd still out there, Madison is Tracy's only hope of survival. They're going to go to Fort Worth, Texas, to find Alicia and put her to rest. Tracy tells Madison that Troy thought she would change, so she counters that he was right about one thing: "Pretending the world's different than it is, that's what gets people killed. And the sooner you realize that, the better. That's how you're gonna survive. I figured that out too late to save my own kids. I'm not gonna make the same mistake with you."

At an auto restoration shop located on "Polar Bear's" road network, Madison turns her gun on Luciana and demands she take them to Fort Worth. She can't risk Luciana taking Tracy back to the island, and she needs her granddaughter to understand that living the way Strand wants to -- the way she used to think they could live -- is going to get Tracy killed. Luciana agrees to help Madison lay Alicia to rest and suggests that burying her daughter will help her see that "there is something more to fight for." Madison killing Troy may seem unforgivable, she tells Tracy, "but at least this way, you're gonna live long enough to understand why I did it." Tracy relinquishes the St. Christopher medallion -- if what Troy said is true, it belonged to Alicia. And it didn't work, anyway. It didn't keep her dad safe. "Guess it didn't keep Alicia safe, either," Madison responds, just as Tracy goes for her holster and turns Madison's gun against her. But the magazine is empty. "You think I'd risk pointing a loaded gun at my daughter's kid?" Madison removes the empty magazine and places the medallion inside. It may not work, but it's all she has left of Alicia.

Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) arrives at the auto shop with Daniel and Ada (Nona Parker Johnson), Della (Julia Wackenheim-Gimple), and Sara (Sasha An), the three women who are carrying on Alicia's legacy by helping people. Strand wants to take Tracy and Madison back to PADRE, explaining it's the safest place for them, but Madison now believes that building it into what he wants it to be -- and what Alicia wanted it to be, and what Madison wanted it to be -- will only get Tracy killed. Alicia gave Troy a second chance... and in turn, he murdered her and stole her child. Madison holds her old friends at gunpoint, firing three shots into the air to keep them at bay. Unfortunately, this draws walkers from the herd, forcing everyone to hunker down inside the garage as they're swarmed by the dead. They're trapped with no way out.

Strand reaches his husband, Frank (Isha Blaaker), over walkie-talkie for help... only to find out that PADRE has their own problem with the dead. The rest of Troy's men have rounded up the dispersed dead and herded the walkers onto the barge that Crane (Daniel Rashid) docked off shore. "They're gonna overrun this place," Russell snickers, "and there's not a damn thing you or anyone else can do about it." June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) tells him they called a truce with Troy to call off the herd, but then Madison killed him. There's no stopping the herd now. The walkers shamble off the boat, into the water, and onto the island's shore, forcing Dwight to order PADRE's people to retreat inside the camp's gates. The fort should withstand the mass of dead... as long as the walls hold against the thousands of zombies forcing their way inside.

Back at the auto shop, Daniel says their lack of ammo means they have to wait until the pack of walkers outside tire themselves out. The repeater network allows Frank to report that the walls are holding -- for now -- but the dead have flooded PADRE. It will be overrun if they can't draw the walkers away. Russell offers a deal: if they hand over Tracy, his men will lead the herd away from PADRE. He made a promise to Troy to keep her safe. Madison points out that Troy asked the same of her. "She's all I have left," Madison says.

Then Russell reveals the truth: Troy stabbed Alicia and left her for dead, but he didn't see her die. Troy told Madison that Alicia turned, but as it turns out, that's not the whole truth. Russell lied to Troy, telling him that Alicia succumbed to her wounds after Troy "cut her up pretty good." She hurt him, too, and nearly drove her bladed arm clean through his stomach. ("Just like mother, like daughter.") That explains how Troy got Alicia's arm. He limped home with her arm prosthetic stuck in his stomach, and a few days after Troy's fight with Alicia, he dispatched Russell and some men to make sure she was dead. They found a mattress soaked in blood, the knife Troy stabbed Alicia with on the floor... and bloody footprints heading out the door.

Strand notes that doesn't mean that Alicia's alive -- but she could be, says Madison, who is desperately hoping against hope. Fearing what might happen if Troy found out he didn't kill Alicia, Russell lied. If they hand over Tracy, he'll herd the dead away from PADRE and Madison can go find Alicia. It's not a deal Madison is willing to accept. If Alicia is alive out there, she wouldn't want Madison to give up her daughter. It's decided, then. Russell's men will take the island, firing grenade launchers to blast holes in the 10-foot-thick walls of the fort. The dead don't have to get in -- they just have to get the living out.

With PADRE under attack from Russell's army and their zombie legion, Strand decides they can't wait out the walkers pinning them inside the auto shop. He breaks the chains, sending the walkers flooding inside, forcing everyone to fight their way through the rabid horde. PADRE and the auto shop are under siege from an overwhelming mass of walkers, and fires from the explosions threaten to burn the island fort to ashes. Odessa (Jayla Walton) retrieves the dual Single Action Army revolvers with "JD" etched into the handles that once belonged to June's departed husband, sharpshooter John Dorie. If this is the end, they're going out guns blazing.

Dwight, Sherry, June, Odessa, Frank, and Klaus (Julian Grey) are forced to fight their way through the herd if they're going to make it the hundred yards to the docks. With the island's children looking to "Red Kite" to lead them, Dwight calls the shots: he orders Hawk (Triston Dye) and the prefects to fire off flares on the far walls to draw the walkers away and thin the herds, creating their own path to the docks. If they're going to survive, they're going to have to kill their way out. Dwight and Sherry steel themselves as the gates open. "For Finch." For their son. Russell says the herd will eat them alive. "That's why you're here," Dwight growls, throwing Russell to the swarm of gnashing teeth and fingers that tear him apart as a diversion.

After clearing the walkers outside the auto shop, Strand's decision draws rage from Daniel. "This is the last time you put in danger what's left of my family to save yours," he yells, to which Strand says Daniel would have done the same if Luciana was on the island. Strand has only pursued his "self-serving crusade" to help him feel better about "all the rotten things" he's done, Daniel argues, so Strand counters: "The parts of me that you hate are the things you don't like about yourself." The last-surviving Salazar blames Strand and Madison for him losing "every single person" he's ever cared for and lost. He recalls Los Angeles, and regrets letting Travis (Cliff Curtis) into his barbershop the night the city fell "because ever since I did, everything has been bad luck for me." In turn, Madison says she regrets letting him into her home, and Strand regrets letting him onto the Abigail.

Luciana has tuned up a car allowing them to reach one of PADRE's refineries before sunrise. "I don't know if Alicia's alive," Daniel tells Madison, "but wherever she is, she's better off without you." And so is Tracy. Daniel tells the girl to run away from Madison (who is "losing her mind") and Strand ("a selfish, pathological liar who would have gotten Luciana and myself killed, just like every single person I ever cared for!") Daniel departs with Luciana, who leaves Madison a map and a can of gas to get to Fort Worth. Her parting words are kind: she hopes Madison finds Alicia and the peace she deserves.

On the island, Frank reports that PADRE is overwhelmed: they can't get to the dock because the dead are pushing them back to the center of the island. Walkers have pressed against the nets and gates, causing everyone to band together and stab the seemingly endless waves of walkers. This is also where Madison must leave Strand. She has to go find Alicia, and after almost drowning and then fighting walkers, she's in no shape for a fight. If Madison goes to PADRE, she fears she won't come back. "I need you, Madison. I need my friend," Strand says, choking back tears. "And to try to save my family." They're friends, but, "I've been seeing her. Nick, too. It's like a dream," Madison says of the visions of her kids that have flashed throughout the episode. "Just their faces. Back in LA, before everything went bad. If I have the chance to find her, Victor, I have to try. Start over."

Strand wants that for her, too, but it's clear nothing he can say will convince Madison to fight for PADRE. "I came here to save her. I came here to save you," he says tearfully. "So I can give you a chance to get things right. And now Frank and Klaus may die because of it. I guess you're teaching her what you want her to learn... this is how you survive." Victor Strand gives up on Madison Clark. "If you find Alicia, tell her I tried."

In the escape car, Madison sets her gun down to chart the course to Alicia. "If you're so sure the world's shit," Tracy asks, "why was it so important for Alicia to believe it could be different?" To that, Madison answers, "I think parents just try to give their kids the things that they didn't have." The next question, then, is whether Madison had anything to believe in when she was a kid. Madison recalls how her daddy drank and hurt her mama. He'd hit her, then he'd apologize, but the cycle of violence would repeat. Until Madison ended it. Madison recalls being Tracy's age when she knew her father was going to kill her mother, eventually. "I wanted it to stop so bad, I shot him," she admits, without a shred of remorse. Tracy takes Madison's hand. "You did it to protect her. You didn't want Alicia to have to do anything like that." Madison has visions of the Dell Diamond baseball stadium, and how she wanted to build a place where her kids could feel safe. But in the end, all she ever did was put them in danger. "So you get it?" Tracy says. "Why I have to do this."

Tracy shoots Madison, sending her spilling out of the open car door. Madison chuckles inbetween gasping for air. "You finally understand," she says weakly. "This is what happens when you try to build something better. You end up giving people hope. End up putting them in danger. You end up getting them killed. Find Alicia. Make sure she understands, too." Tracy again refuses to believe Alicia is her mother and leaves Madison for dead.

Meanwhile, Strand, Ada, Della, and Sara have reached the docks, but Strand's SOS goes unanswered... until Luciana and Daniel come over the radio, telling him that they can't get there in time to help save PADRE. "It can't end like this," Strand yells. "It can't end like this!" But that's the end of PADRE. The fort burns. A huddled mass of walker bodies are disposed in a mass grave. PADRE has fallen. In the woods, Tracy finds a zombified Troy tangled in branches. She tells him she shot Madison and how she thinks everyone on the island is dead. Tracy raises the gun, shoots Troy, and buries her father.

There's at least one survivor: Strand. He finds Tracy and takes her to an RV to tell her she still has something left to fight for. "Madison saved me. She saved all of us," Strand reveals. "And I promised her I'd find you, so I could tell you what she did." But Tracy shot Madison. Tracy killed Madison. Jumping back in time at the auto shop, Madison sticks her hand into her bloody jacket... and withdraws the gun's magazine, a bullet embedded in Alicia's St. Christopher medallion. It works.

"After you shot her, after she realized you wanted everything to end, she knew she was wrong. She knew she had to do something big, something monumental, in order to have any hope of restoring your faith," Strand says. "In what's worth fighting for. For the people we love. For the people we have. For the things that are bigger than all of us. For the things that we'd give up our lives to protect."

People and places like PADRE. The fort fell to the dead... but Madison saved the living "the same way she did once before." A flashback reveals the walker herd flooding into PADRE. In the distance, a glowing red flare reveals a figure: it's Madison, drawing the walkers inside PADRE the way she did at the stadium all those years ago. Madison leads the dead to the basement where she spent seven years of her life locked away inside her airtight cell, and with a swing of her sledge hammer, punctures the oxygen tanks that kept her alive. "She led the dead into PADRE's walls so we could escape to the docks," Strand says. "So we could live." She didn't do it just for them -- it was for Tracy, too. So she would know.

Madison shuts herself inside her cell and dons an oxygen mask. "That your dad, that Madison... they were right. They knew that fighting for something better can get you killed. But it's also something that just fighting to survive can't." Madison lights another flare, opens the hatch in her cell door, tosses it out... and the air ignites, engulfing the walker horde in the fiery blaze that burns PADRE to the ground. "It can let you live forever."

No one's gone until they're gone... but Madison Clark is gone. Tracy realizes she has no one left. "She died for me," she cries. "And so did he." Strand tells her she has him and the others from PADRE, but she once again runs away. Sometime later, Tracy places a bluebonnet and the St. Christopher medallion next to... MADISON. ALIVE. Still breathing. The oxygen mask kept her from suffocating, but it was Tracy who saved Madison's life. After Strand told her what she did to save everyone, she spent half a day digging her out of the rubble. Madison is the only family she has left.

But no one's gone until they're gone... and ALICIA CLARK ISN'T GONE. Alicia lives! She came to PADRE to bury her mother, having heard the story about a woman named Madison dying to save PADRE's people. The Clarks reunite, embrace, and sob -- both in disbelief that the other is alive. Alicia asks if Madison is okay, to which she answers, "I will be." That's not the only reunion: Alicia found Daniel's cat, Skidmark, while scavenging a warehouse for supplies. With the cat out of the bag, Alicia asks: "How are you still here?"

Madison tells Alicia that her daughter came back and saved her life... but Alicia never had a child. She knew Tracy's mother, Serena, so Tracy realizes that Troy lied because he knew how hard Madison fought for Nick and Alicia, and he wanted to give her a reason to fight for Tracy. Another question: "You said you heard a story about me. From who?"

On a highway overpass, Alicia explains she picked up radio chatter on the road. As they wait for the storytellers to make their route, Alicia tells Madison she would have looked for her if she knew she was alive. "I would've come looking for you, too," Madison responds. "I never would've stopped." After Troy attacked Alicia, she came across Ada, Della, and Sara, women who dressed like her, used weapons she was using, and did the things she did: helping people. "It's like the story of what I'd done was doing more good than I could do on my own," Alicia realizes. "And so I went somewhere else. I started using a different name so Troy couldn't find me. If I hadn't done that, maybe we would have found each other." In the end, Madison says Alicia made the right choice giving people something to believe in.

Who heard Madison's story? It's a convoy of trucks carrying shipping containers with the word "PADRE" replaced by "MADRE." The people who told Alicia about Madison had one of the MADRE containers, but they think Madison is dead. Down below, it's revealed the convoy is Luciana, Ada, Della, Sara, and children from PADRE. They're going to use the refineries to refuel before rolling out on the road.

June is headed to John Dorie's cabin back in Texas, and Odessa is going along so June can teach her medicine. John's cabin is where her husband taught her "to shoot, to survive," June says. "To live again. If he can do that for me there, maybe I can do the same for you." They'll be keeping in touch once they get the repeater stations. Dwight and Sherry decide to go find the parents of the kids that PADRE separated from their parents, but with the island gone, the kids will need somewhere to live. Dwight suggests The Sanctuary. It's defensible, and the streets are still intact, so they can rebuild it into a place that's "worthy of its name." Sherry fears losing Dwight to that place again, but she won't. They'll do it to make Finch proud -- and they'll do it together. Forever.

In the last time we'll see them together, Daniel Salazar and Victor Strand make peace. He was wrong "in some parts," admitting that Strand did save his family when the world fell apart. He thanks him for the Abigail. "No need to thank me for something that people should do for one another," Strand says, truly a changed man. With a smile, he adds: "You just caught me on a good day." Maybe Strand was right. Maybe he does remind Daniel of the worst things about himself. "I don't know if people like us can act differently. And that's why I have a problem with you, Victor. But for the sake of others and our own sakes... I guess we got to try to change." From selfish to selfless, from cunning con man to caring family man -- Strand thinks he has changed. "Whether you have," he tells Daniel, "that's up to you." Daniel pats Strand's shoulder, and in German, says his goodbyes: "I'm tired of war. All the best." Daniel hears meowing and finds Skidmark -- a little older, a little worse for wear. And finally, Daniel Salazar laughs heartily. With Luciana, and Skidmark, he has his familia.

Strand, Frank, and Klaus also chart a new direction. Placed in Strand's truck: a bluebonnet. He knows what it means, and who put it there: a friend. He looks out the window and sees the Clarks -- Madison, Alicia, and Tracy -- and exhales. With a smile, Strand's family has their new direction: onward.

In the final scene of the series, Madison tells Tracy that MADRE doesn't need her. They'll do better if they think Madison Clark is dead -- before she gives them a reason to stop believing. They've made their way from California, to Mexico, to Texas, to Georgia. Where to next? Madison has been having visions of Nick and Alicia back before everything went bad. Back home in Los Angeles. They saw the city get bombed during Operation Cobalt, but that was 2010. Another lifetime ago. It's probably still pretty rough there, Madison says, and there's probably a lot of people who could use their help. Holding Nick's ashes, Madison thinks of her son. Maybe there's still some good out here. "It's never gonna be what it was," Madison says. "That doesn't mean we can't start over. Let's go home."

"Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard plays as the Clark family drives down the road ahead to start over in Los Angeles. The end is the beginning.

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The penultimate episode of Fear the Walking Dead, "Fighting Like You," begins where last week's episode left off: with Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) on the warpath against Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) to finish what she started 10 years ago at the Gonzalez Dam. Troy has tracked down his daughter Tracy (Antonella Rose) and thawed the frozen walker herd, including Tracy's zombified mother. Troy is leading the herd to PADRE after his right-hand man Russell (Randy Bernales) figured out how to get the dead onto the island. And then, Troy tells Tracy, "We'll finally have a home."

They're transporting Tracy's mother to PADRE so she can "be the one to make Madison pay for everything she's done." Tracy asks why mom has to be the one to kill Madison, so Troy reminds her: "She's Alicia's mother. She put the thinking in her head that got people killed. We can't let what happened to mom happen to anyone else." She also questions why Troy would want her to wear her necklace -- the St. Christopher's medallion that, according to Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), he once gave to Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) -- if she killed mom. Troy explains that her mother gave him the necklace when she died and made him promise to give it to Tracy to keep her safe, which is what he's been doing ever since.

Troy's truck triggers a trip wire, causing a rigged tree log to pummel the truck and send it careening down an embankment. Tracy escapes the wreck unscathed, but dad does not: Troy is impaled by a jagged branch pinning him inside the overturned truck. The crash has drawn walkers out of the woods, so he tells Tracy to leave him and find Russell. "If you don't make it to PADRE," Troy tells Tracy, "then all of this, everything that I've done, it won't mean anything." Tracy doesn't want to live at PADRE without Troy, so she gives him the medallion to keep him safe while she goes to get help. "And then we'll do what we said -- we'll make PADRE our home. Together."

Over Madison's dead body. She's taken the MRAP SWAT van back to the icy swamp, only to find Troy's men melted the mud and freed the frozen walkers. Strand reaches Madison over walkie-talkie and pleads with her to call off her mission to kill Troy, but enough people have died because of her. She can't put the rest of them at risk. He reports that he's with the trio of women carrying on Alicia's legacy -- Ada (Nona Parker Johnson), Sara (Sasha An), and Della (Julia Wackenheim-Gimple) -- after the rest of the group retreated to the island to escape the herd. She's doing this so he doesn't have to -- so he can build PADRE into what Alicia would have wanted.

Strand warns Madison that he learned what she's doing the hard way at the Tower: "It was just always one more thing I needed to do to keep it safe. And before I knew it, I was the thing people needed to be protected from." Madison finds Tracy in the van trying to use its radio to get Troy help and learns that Russell is leading the herd toward PADRE. Only Troy knows where Russell is taking the herd, so if Madison is going to protect PADRE, she has to get to it first. She gets Tracy to give up Troy's location and radios Strand: she's leaving him the MRAP with Tracy inside, and she's going to kill Troy. "What happened to 'no one's gone until they're gone?'" Tracy asks Madison, telling her that if she really wanted to build PADRE into what Alicia wanted, she'd give Troy a second chance. Madison looks at the skeletal remains of Alicia's severed arm -- all that's left of her daughter after Troy killed her -- and tells Tracy point-blank: "He doesn't deserve one." Alicia believed everyone deserves a second chance, and if Madison believed that, she'd help her father. But Troy killed Alicia, so Troy has to die.

Back at the crash, Troy radios Russell and makes him promise to get Tracy to PADRE. Madison saves Troy from walkers clutching at the vehicle... only so she can kill him herself. Before Madison can bring her sledgehammer down on his head, Troy kicks Madison, rips himself free, and tackles Madison to the ground. He goes to feed her face-first to Tracy's zombie mom, so Madison twists the shard of branch still embedded in Troy's shoulder and then plunges a blade into his wife's brain, putting her down. And she's going to do the same to Troy. "You killed my daughter. I'll do what I have to do to make sure her memory doesn't die," Madison says. Troy tells her that Alicia's beliefs are what got her killed, but Madison says places like PADRE can still work "if people like you and me are no longer in this world."

Madison wields her hammer like an executioner's blade, but Troy tells her she won't stop the herd if he's dead. If Madison lets him bury his wife and see his daughter so he can tell her something face-to-face, he'll take her to Russell. Madison and Troy are aware they can't trust the other to hold up their end of the deal, but Madison makes it clear she's going to kill him -- for good this time -- to protect PADRE.

At the van, Tracy watches an old video that Althea recorded of Alicia (in the season 5 episode "Channel 4"). "My mom used to look for a little bit of good every time she went out into the world," Alicia says on the tape. "She would have liked this." Strand arrives and informs her that Troy agreed to reveal the herd's location if they bring him to his daughter, but Tracy fears Madison is going to kill her dad when she gets what she wants. But if Tracy keeps watching those tapes, Della says, she'll see that Madison gave a lot of people second chances "whether they deserved them or not." That includes Strand. Madison and Alicia never gave up on him, so they just need to remind Madison she's a person who believes in second chances.

In the woods, Troy digs a grave for his wife, Serena Otto. Madison remarks that it must be nice getting to bury the person he loves, to which Troy responds that Alicia can keep rotting and roaming as a walker forever. (Troy might as well be digging his own grave.) Troy explains why he blames Alicia for Serena's death, telling Madison that Serena was pregnant when they were looking for a place to live after Mexico. Serena got bit on the arm like Alicia... and it was Alicia who saved her. They put an SOS over the radio, Alicia responded, saved Serena's life, and departed in the MRAP to go help more people. This inspired Serena to pay it forward and help people like Alicia. Unfortunately, Serena responded to an SOS call that led her into a trap: a man shot her, robbed her, and left Serena for dead. Troy found Serena holed up in a strip mall, where she eventually succumbed to blood loss. "I held her while she died, Madison," Troy says. "I listened to her weep. She told me she'd never get to watch her daughter grow up." All because she believed what Alicia believed. Troy promised he'd never let Tracy hurt the way her mother did -- and he'd never let his daughter believe what Alicia put into Serena's head. That's the reason Troy killed Alicia.

A walker stumbles out of the woods, and when Madison turns to kill it, Troy hits her with his shovel and makes a run for it -- right into another trap. Who has been leaving traps throughout the woods? It's Crane (Daniel Rashid), a.k.a. PADRE's Ben Krennick, who has been holed up on a barge since the death of his sister Shrike (Maya Eshet) in the midseason finale. He blames Madison for Shrike's death and wants to take back PADRE. If Troy stops the herd from reaching PADRE, Crane will let him live there with Tracy. Crane turns on his walkie so Troy can call off his men... only for Madison to use the opportunity to alert Strand that she's on the docks with Troy. Madison remarks that "Blue Jay"/June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) should have killed Crane instead of sparing him, reinforcing her belief that not everyone deserves a second chance.

Crane cuffs Madison and Troy's hands together and forces them to lead him to the herd at gunpoint. He points out that the last time he saw "Lark," she risked her life to reunite Nightingale and Wren: Morgan Jones (Lennie James) and his daughter Mo (Zoey Merchant). "Now you're using a father against his own daughter? Whatever happened to 'family is worth fighting for?'" To that, Madison responds, "It still is. I'm just fighting like you guys." Daniel (Rub?n Blades) and Luciana (Danay Garc?a) attack the transport, freeing Madison and dragging Troy along. They hide out in a shack three miles out from the barge to radio Strand for help, but the connection is weak. Troy says they need to get to higher ground to transmit their coordinates. "'We?'" Daniel chuckles, turning his gun on Troy. "We're not going anywhere." Luciana and Daniel didn't track them here to save them -- they did it to kill Troy and avenge their people after the shootout at the truck stop. And they're doing it for Ofelia. And for Charlie.

Madison convinces Luciana and Daniel to let Troy go. He's their only shot at finding the herd and save PADRE from being overrun by 5,000 walkers, but they need the MRAP to get there in time. Daniel warns Madison that Troy will say whatever he has to say to get what he wants, but she already knows. "When this is all over," she tells him, "I'll make sure he doesn't hurt anyone else." And if she doesn't, Daniel will.

Still handcuffed together so he can't run off, Troy tells Madison that he wasn't going to lead Crane to the herd because his deal was with Madison. Madison assures him she'll kill him as quick as Crane will, but Troy thinks that's not who she is. "I know what it is to believe in something," he explains, "and how hard it is to let it go." When they reach a swamp filled with water-logged walkers, their only way across is a rickety wooden bridge. Madison notes the swamp is pulling the walkers down like quicksand. But with Crane closing in and opening fire, their only option is to go tread carefully over the bridge. Rather than shoot them, Crane chops the bridge rope with his hatchet, sending Madison and Troy plunging into the zombie-infested swamp. Either the walkers will get them, or the mud will suck them below to drown.

Troy says he can still lead Crane to the herd, but the man formerly known as "Padre" is willing to let PADRE fall if it means watching Madison die for letting his sister be eaten alive. Troy tells Crane he's just trying to get to his daughter, but that only reinforces what Crane believes and why PADRE separated parents from their offspring: "People need to be protected from themselves. Especially when it comes to their kids."

As it turns out, that's the reason Crane and Shrike saved Madison after she used a flare to lead a walker horde into the Dell Diamond baseball stadium, locked herself inside, and sacrificed herself to save her kids. In a quick flashback to the season 4 episode "No One's Gone," it's revealed Madison escaped the stadium after it was overrun with walkers and engulfed in flames by taking cover in a water truck. She was then found and rescued by Crane and Shrike, who heard what were believed to be Madison's last words to Nick and Alicia: No one's gone until they're gone. "If you were willing to die for them, we knew we could get you to do just about anything. You thought that those beliefs were gonna save your kids... but in the end, that's what got them killed," Crane says.

Madison then yells out to draw nearby walkers out of the woods, which descend on Crane and devour him. As Troy and Madison struggle to keep their heads above water, Troy tells her he's sorry and that he didn't want it to end like this. He then tells her that Russell is leading the herd to the northwest corner of the swamp, hoping the current will sweep the dead to the island's shore. "Maybe I don't deserve a second chance," he says, "but Tracy does." But it's too late for second chances. Troy and Madison start to go under, her last words an admission that PADRE is "better off without people like us."

But then... a second chance. Madison wakes up to find Strand and Alicia's followers with Daniel and Luciana. But they're not the ones who saved her: it was Troy, who reveals he grabbed a root and pulled them out of the swamp. He did it because he wasn't telling Madison the truth. The truth? Serena never regretted following Alicia, and it was Alicia who gave Serena the St. Christopher medallion to bring them luck. He confesses that he lied to Tracy, too, and tells Madison that his wife made him promise to keep what Alicia believed in alive so he'd always know what he was fighting for. But he broke that promise.

Daniel and Luciana don't believe him, but he reminds Madison that he told her he knows what it's like to believe in something -- and how hard it is to let it go. He saw it in Serena's eyes as she was dying, and he saw it in Madison's eyes as they were going under. It was the look of someone who was going to die "believing in nothing." Troy couldn't let that happen. Not for Madison's sake --but for Tracy's. "I didn't do what Serena asked. I didn't keep it alive," Troy tells Madison. "But maybe I could. If you gave me a second chance. Like Alicia did."

Madison realizes that's what Troy wanted to tell Tracy. He's reunited with his daughter, so it's Troy's turn to hold up his end of the deal and take them to the herd. Later, the MRAP cuts off the herd, opening fire and gunning down the front of the pack. Then Odessa (Jayla Walton), Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista), and June arrive with a convoy of PADRE prefects to divert and break up the herd. Madison has fluid in her already damaged lungs, so it's imperative they get her to PADRE for treatment.

But first, the group is split over what to do with Troy. Strand and Ada advocate for giving Troy a second chance, but Daniel and Luciana don't trust letting him on the island. "What if he's telling the truth? What if he's changed?" Strand asks. If not, Daniel asks Madison: "Are you willing to risk that?" Meanwhile, Troy returns Tracy's medallion and apologizes for lying to her. "You did what you said," she tells her dad. "You found us a home. And you kept me safe." Madison tells Tracy to get ready to head to PADRE, but first, she needs to talk to Troy.

Madison tells Troy she's been thinking about Alicia, and how she gave him a second chance despite everything. Alicia's arm is all Madison has left of her daughter. "I'll do everything in my power to make sure I'm worthy of the second chance that she gave me," Troy promises. "And everyone on that island, too. Things have changed. You have to believe me."

"That's just it, Troy -- I don't." Madison impales Troy with Alicia's arm prosthetic, shocking everyone as she twists the blade deeper into his guts. "I'm done with second chances," Madison snarls. "Troy was right. That's what got Alicia killed. That's why I had to do this! If I didn't, I'd be putting you all at risk. This is how we survive. This is how PADRE survives." Troy, blood spilling from his mouth, brings Madison close. "You have to fight for Tracy like you fought for Nick and Alicia." Why would I do anything you say? Troy spits it out: "Because she's not my daughter." Troy reveals that Serena died before their child could be born. Who is Tracy's mother? Who??

"Alicia. I took her child to make up for what I lost," Troy answers. With that, Troy Otto dies by Madison's -- and Alicia's -- hand.

"The Road Ahead," part two of the two-episode Fear the Walking Dead series finale, follows.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

It's a date, Richonne lovers: AMC has set a premiere date for The Walking Dead Rick and Michonne series. The network on Sunday announced The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live will premiere February 25, 2024, on AMC and AMC+ -- almost eight years to the day Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne's (Danai Gurira) Richonne romance began on "The Next World" episode of The Walking Dead in 2016. AMC also released a new teaser for the six-episode spinoff show during Sunday's two-episode series finale of Fear the Walking Dead, which you can watch above.

"People are going, 'Where have you gone?'" Lincoln, whose Rick Grimes disappeared aboard a CRM helicopter during season 9 of The Walking Dead, says in the teaser video. "Our ambition is to have some answers." Adds Gurira: "These two people are so powerful, and together, it's insane. This is some crazy love."

Rick was presumed dead after he sacrificed himself to save his family and friends from a walker herd. But Rick survived, and as The Walking Dead: World Beyond revealed, Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) trafficked Rick to the Civic Republic Military. Rick was shipped off to clear walkers at a Civic Republic Cull Facility... a fate he's been unable to escape ever since. Six years and one Richonne baby later -- Rick and Michonne's son, RJ (Antony Azor), was born after Rick disappeared -- Michonne eventually learned that Rick is alive and set off to bring him home. No one, living or dead, will get in the way of Michonne reuniting Rick with their children, RJ and Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming). As the Grimes family stated in The Walking Dead series finale: "We're the ones who live."

The teaser also reveals the first look at Terry O'Quinn (Lost) as the CRM's shadowy leader, Major General Beale, and the return of Bailey (Andrew Bachelor) and Aiden (Brenda Wool) -- the two straggling survivors from a migrating caravan who asked Michonne for help when she left to find Rick. Other cast members include Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer) as Pearl and Matt Jeffries as Nat.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live "presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were," reads the official synopsis. "Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead... And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they've ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive -- or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?"

AMC's Walking Dead Universe Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple is showrunner and serves as executive producer with Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth (The Walking Dead), and Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon). TWDU veteran Greg Nicotero is a consulting producer and supervised the zombie special make-up effects.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres Feb. 25, with new episodes airing Sundays on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

"No one's gone until they're gone," but Fear the Walking Dead is nearly gone. The remaining two episodes of the eighth and final season will premiere as a two-episode series finale event Sunday, November 19, ending the first Walking Dead spinoff after 113 episodes. Season 8 episode 11 ("Fighting Like You") and season 8 episode 12 ("The Road Ahead") will air back-to-back on AMC, and viewers who tune into the cable premiere will be the first to see a new look at The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, the next series set in The Walking Dead Universe. (Then stay tuned to ComicBook for our post-finale interview with showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg.)

Below, read on to find out when and where to watch the Fear the Walking Dead series finale and how to catch up on previous seasons.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 11 Release Date

The penultimate episode of the series, "Fighting Like You," premieres Sunday, November 19, at 9/8c on AMC and is available to stream now on AMC+ (more on that below).

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 11 Run Time

"Fighting Like You" has a run time of 40 minutes and 13 seconds.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 12 Release Date

The Fear the Walking Dead series finale, "The Road Ahead," premieres immediately after "Fighting Like You" at 10:00 p.m. on AMC. The episode is now available to stream on AMC+.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Finale Run Time

The extended series finale clocks in at 51 minutes and 33 seconds.

How to Watch Fear the Walking Dead Online Without Cable

Cord-cutters can stream Fear the Walking Dead season 8 on AMC+. Prices start at $4.99/month for the new AMC+ with ads plan, while ad-free AMC+ is available for $6.99/month (when billed annually) or $8.99/month (when billed monthly). New customers can sign up for a 7-day free AMC Plus trial.

AMC+ is available as an app and via Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video Channels, The Roku Channel, Comcast Xfinity, Dish, DirecTV, Sling TV, and YouTube TV.

You can watch Fear the Walking Dead for free on the AMC website by signing in with your television provider, or by signing up for a free AMC Plus trial. You can also purchase and download individual episodes (priced $2.99 for HD, $1.99 for SD per episode) on retailers like Amazon Prime Video and Vudu.

Where Can I Watch Fear the Walking Dead?

You can stream all eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead on AMC+, including the two-part series finale.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episodes Recaps:

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Part 1

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 1 Recap: "Remember What They Took From You"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 2 Recap: "Blue Jay"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 3 Recap: "Odessa"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 4 Recap: "King County"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 5 Recap: "More Time Than You Know"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 6 Recap: "All I See Is Red"

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Part 2

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 7 Recap: "Anton"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 8 Recap: "Iron Tiger"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 9 Recap: "Sanctuary"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 10 Recap: "Keeping Her Alive"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 11 Recap: "Fighting Like You" (Series Finale Part 1)
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 12 Recap: "The Road Ahead" (Series Finale Part 2)

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

After The Haunting of Hill House was a runaway success at Netflix talks of continuing the series began, the problem of course is the story was over. Netflix and creator Mike Flanagan took a page out of the American Horror Story playbook though and turned "The Haunting of..." into an anthology show. The first season of the show was adapted from Shirley Jackson's novel, while season 2 became The Haunting of Bly Manor, based on short stories by Henry James. Though the relationship between Mike Flanagan and Netflix continued (and has sadly come to an end), a third season never came to be despite a sizable fandom. Now however, Flanagan has confirmed what his plans were for Haunting season 3.

Bloody Disgusting brings word of Suntup Editions, a publishing hosue that has annoucned "a fine press limited edition of the 1971 novel Hell House by Richard Matheson," which includes not only a forward by Mike Flanagan, but confirmation from the writer/director that the classic book was in the cards to be adapted for television. He writes:

"Had there been a third season, I wanted that season to be The Haunting of Hell House. It was actually the first title we explored when Hill House was over, but the rights were spoken for and there did not seem to be a path forward...I don't know that there has ever been a haunted house story as downright cinematic as Hell House. It is written by a man who thought visually, who had a flair for cinematic set pieces, audience expectations, and visceral thrills that eluded many of his literary predecessors. That is one of the reasons I Am Legend [also by Richard Matheson] resonates so deeply, and Stephen King is correct when he says: 'Without his I Am Legend, there would have been no Night of the Living Dead.' Without Hell House, I'd argue that there would be no Poltergeist, no The Conjuring, no Insidious."

Richard Matheson's Hell House has only been adapted one time, the 1973 feature film The Legend of Hell House s tarring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, and Clive Revill.

After releasing the two seasons of Haunting on Netflix, Mike Flanagan stuck with the streamer in a first-look deal that brought us three more horror shows including Midnight Mass in 2021, The Midnight Club in 2022, and this year's The Fall of the House of Usher. Despite his most recent release already becoming a major ratings hit for the streamer, Flanagan and his production company are no longer present at Netflix and instead have set-up a new first look deal at Amazon's Prime Video.

"Amazon is a studio that we have long admired," Flanagan and his production partner Trevor Macy said in a statement last year. "Their commitment to engaging in groundbreaking series and content aligns with the ethos of what we have built at Intrepid. We are looking forward to working with the entire Amazon team as we bring our brand of genre productions to the service and audiences around the globe."

The WGA and SAG strikes are officially over, which means many projects are heading back into production as studios continue to shuffle around release dates. Last month, it was reported that Warner Bros. was considering delaying Beetlejuice 2, but now it looks like the film might get to keep its September 2024 release date. According to a report from CBS affiliate, WBZ News, in Boston, the movie is back to filming in Melrose.

"Over the last few days, several blocks of the neighborhood by the intersection of West Emerson and Charles streets have been decked out in Halloween decor. Crews, cables, and production trucks have taken over the neighborhood," WBZ reports. "Filming is expected through at least Friday. This is the same neighborhood where Beetlejuice 2 was filming during the summer until the SAG-AFTRA strike shut down production."

Who Stars in Beetlejuice 2?

Michael Keaton is back as the titular character alongside Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz and Catherine O'Hara as Delia Deetz in addition to franchise newcomers Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci. Tim Burton is back to direct the sequel and recently teased the project.

"Honestly, I don't really know, because I am really not that good at talking or speaking or trying to sell something, so to speak. Looking back, it's a very, very strange journey that I can't quite explain," Burton told the Independent when asked about thriving in Hollywood. "That's why it is hard for me to watch the movies afterwards, because I still feel the emotional whatever of it. I don't get a release from that. But I do enjoy all the people I've worked with. On this last one, Beetlejuice 2, I really enjoyed it. I tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets. It was kind of like going back to why I liked making movies."

Michael Keaton on Returning To Beetlejuice:

"Beetlejuice is the most f*ckin' fun you can have working," Keaton previously shared with Empire. "It's so fun, it's so great. And you know what it is? We're doing it exactly like we did the first movie ... There's a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line - I want people to know this because I love it - tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move."

Keaton added, "[Burton] and I were talking about it years and years ago, never telling anybody. I said, 'If it happens, first of all, we've both said we're doing it many times. We both agreed, if it happens, it has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time. Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something. F*ckin' great. It's the most fun I've had working on a movie in I can't tell you how long."

Beetlejuice 2 is currently scheduled to debut in theaters on September 6, 2024.

Stranger Things is heading back into production for its fifth and final season, but that's not the only thing fans of the Netflix series have to look forward to. Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a new stage play that is coming to London's West End and it is set in Hawkins, Indiana in 1959. The play is based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne, and Kate Trefry. The First Shadow will feature younger versions of the characters Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, Bob Newby, and Henry Creel. The first photos of the production were shared last month, and now the folks behind the play have released a first look at the Demogorgon.

"Henry, meet Demogorgon. FIRST LOOK at #StrangerThingsOnStage. ? ?: Manuel Harlan," Stranger Things On Stage shared. You can check out the photo below:

Henry, meet Demogorgon.

FIRST LOOK at #StrangerThingsOnStage. ?

?: Manuel Harlan pic.twitter.com/BxNtOnXNnw

-- Stranger Things On Stage (@STOnStage) November 17, 2023

Who Is Starring in Stranger Things: The First Shadow?

Stranger Things: The First Shadow's cast includes Oscar Lloyd as James Hopper, Jr., Isabella Pappas as Joyce Maldonado, Christopher Buckley as Bob Newby, Michael Jibson as Victor Creel, Patrick Vaill as Dr. Brenner, Shane Attwooll as Chief Hopper, Kemi Awoderu as Sue Anderson, Chase Brown as Lonnie Byers, Ammar Duffus as Charles Sinclair, Gilles Geary as Ted Wheeler, Florence Guy as Karen Childress, Max Harwood as Allen Munson, Louis McCartney as Henry Creel, Matthew Pidgeon as Father Newby, Calum Ross as Walter Henderson, Maisie Norma Seaton as Claudia Henderson, Lauren Ward as Virginia Creel and Ella Karuna Williams as Patty Newby. Additional cast members include Tricia Adele-Turner, Lauren Arney, Reya-Nyomi Brown, Patricia Castro, Lydia Fraser, Isaac Gryn, Mark Hammersley, Tom Peters, Kingdom Sibanda, Tiana Simone, Danny Sykes and Meesha Turner.

"We are beyond excited about Stranger Things: The First Shadow," Matt and Ross Duffer said in a statement. "Collaborating with the brilliant Stephen Daldry has been nothing short of inspiring, and Kate Trefry has written a play that is at turns surprising, scary, and heartfelt. You will meet endearing new characters, as well as very familiar ones, on a journey into the past that sets the groundwork for the future of Stranger Things. We're dying to tell you more about the story but won't - it's more fun to discover it for yourself. Can't wait to see you nerds in London!"

"The world and mythology of Stranger Things has enabled a rich and fertile ground for creating an incredible story for the stage," Sonia Friedman added. "The Duffer Brothers have built a huge global following for good reason, and a world-class creative team has built on their boundless imagination to dream up an unbelievably exciting theatrical event for our audiences. Set within the canon of Stranger Things, this new play opens in London, with the West End hosting the only place in the world to experience this new story - for now. I'm thrilled to reunite with my visionary long-term collaborator Stephen Daldry. Together, with our brilliant Netflix partners, we can't wait to welcome Stranger Things fans into theatre, and theatregoers into the realm of Stranger Things."

Stay tuned for more updates about Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

The latest The Exorcist movie is officially headed to streaming. On Friday, Blumhouse and Universal confirmed that The Exorcist: Believer will begin streaming on Peacock on Friday, December 1st. The new live-action film arrived in theaters this past October, and brought some surprising revelations regarding the long-running horror franchise. The film just recently became available on VOD and Digital HD.

In addition, Peacock will begin (or continue to) stream a number of Blumhouse movies and shows beginning on December 1st. This includes The Black Phone, Dangerous Breed: Crime.Cons.Cats, Don't Let Go, Five Nights at Freddy's, Halloween Kickback, Sick, The Hunt, The Invisible Man (2020), The Lazarus Effect, They/Them, Vengeance, You Should Have Left, and the first two seasons of The Purge television spinoff.

What Is The Exorcist: Believer About?

In The Exorcist: Believer, since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia Marcum), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, see out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like this before: Chris MacNeil. The film also stars Emmy winner Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale, Hereditary) as Victor and Angela's neighbor, and Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles (Harriet, The Righteous Gemstones) and two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon, Bloodline) as the parents of Katherine, Angela's friend.

"Well, it's fun. We had a road map that thought, 'You know, if the world will embrace what we're making here, then we'll keep it going,'" director David Gordon Green recently told ComicBook.com of the prospect of a sequel. "So we have a nice road map, and then once we got into production, the movie took on a life of its own, and we took some detours on that road. But I'm excited that if this movie is well received and we can keep them cranking, we got some new avenues to explore."

Why Did The Exorcist: Believer Move Release Dates?

In August, Blumhouse shocked fans with the announcement that they would be moving The Exorcist: Believer's release date up one week, from October 13th to October 6th. As Jason Blum revealed at the time, the decision was made made following the announcement of Taylor Swift's highly-anticipated Eras Tour movie, which is now scheduled to make a record-breaking debut on the 13th.

"Obviously, we moved off that [date] and we bowed our head to Taylor Swift," Blum revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. "It was too risky to see if 'Exorswift' was going to take or not. People will still have the Exorswift opportunity, so maybe we got to have our cake and eat it too."

Are you excited for The Exorcist: Believer to start streaming on Peacock? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Over three years after it was announced that Get out and Nope director Jordan Peele was producing a remake of The People Under the Stairs, the horror reboot has gotten a major update. Deadline brings word that Doom Patrol and Night Sky writer Ezra Claytan Daniels has been tapped to write the screenplay for the reboot of The People Under the Stairs. Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions and Universal Studios are collaborating on the new movie, which has Peele and partner Win Rosenfeld serving as producers. No official release date has been set for The People Under the Stairs reboot just yet.

ComicBook.com previously asked for an update on the film from producer Win Rosenfeld about their take on The People Under the Stairs about two years ago. Though he didn't offer much he did tease a major element of how they're approaching a reboot: "I think, unfortunately, I'm going to have to leave you guessing. I do love your site and I'm dying to give you guys whatever scoops I can. I can't give you that one, but just to say, we're approaching it with the same reverence and love that we approach the original Candyman with and how that will express itself, I think, may be different."

Written and directed by the late Wes Craven and released in 1991, The People Under the Stairs was less a straight horror movie from the Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street director, but a biting satirical thriller that took on gentrification and capitalism. The movie told the tale of a young black kid facing eviction from his white landlords The Robesons. The youngester breaks into their home and discovers their horrifying secret, their home has a cannibalistic group of people living under the stairs and in the walls that are forced to survive on scraps while The Robesons live large. In a complete lack of subtlety the film literally ends with a call for wealth redistribution.

Craven sadly passed away in 2015, with the upcoming remake of People Under the Stairs set to be the first of his films to be rebooted following his death. Previous Craven movies like The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, and A Nightmare on Elm Street were all rebooted while the director was still living but with mixed results. The Scream franchise has also continued after Craven's death, though only in the past few years.

Ever since Jordan Peele crashed onto the horror scene with 2017's Get Out, the comedian turned Academy Award-winning filmmaker has been open about his love for the genre and what some of his favorites are from the horror section. While speaking with Consequence of Sound in 2017 for the movie, Peele even shouted out the original The People Under the Stairs, saying:

"When we talk about blaxploitation or Tales from the Hood or Leprechaun in the Hood, I think those fall into parody town for me. They don't scratch my horror itch as well as something like Candyman does or People Under the Stairs, which were ironically brought to us by white filmmakers...Being a black filmmaker almost seems like an impossibility at times. Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule, but we as a society have done a systemic disservice to young, black filmmakers by essentially saying that your vision won't be accepted in Hollywood."

After the release of Get Out, Peele programmed a block of films at the Brooklyn Academy of Music titled "Jordan Peele: The Art of the Social Thriller," including Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary's Baby, Scream, Misery, and two other notable films, Candyman and The People Under the Stairs.

The first season of Goosebumps came to an end on Friday morning, with the finale of the 10-episode run releasing simultaneously on both Disney+ and Hulu. In keeping with the tradition of author R.L. Stine's iconic book series, the Goosebumps finale delivered plenty of thrills, and delivered a couple of massive, last-minute twists to leave viewers guessing as they wait for news about a second season. WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the Goosebumps Season 1 finale! Continue reading at your own risk...

It seemed as though the five teenagers at the center of the story extinguished evil in the finale, stopping Kanduu (the spirit that had been encased within Slappy) and sending him away from the world of the living once and for all. In his final moments, however, Kanduu fires a gun at Margot and Isaiah stepps in to save her, taking the bullet for himself. The final minutes of the episode reveal that Isaiah will likely succumb to his injury.

In order to save Isaiah, whom she finally admits to being in love with, Margot makes the decision to use Kanduu's magic to bring him back to life. That will obviously have some major consequences, one of which is the return of Kanduu. After the spell is read, Mr. Bratt looks in a mirror only to find Kanduu staring back at him. Unfortunately for the cowardly English teacher, his issues with possession are far from over.

Isaiah's life is hanging in the balance and it appears as though the cost to keep him alive is keeping Kanduu on Earth. Ahead of the episode's release, ComicBook.com spoke to Goosebumps executive producers Nick Stoller, Rob Letterman, and Hilary Winston about those shocking final minutes.

"Rob has always talked about it, when I started on the show with Rob and Nick, they said that one of the big things of Goosebumps is 'Be careful what you wish for,'" Winston said. "And so it was really important to us that the season wrap up with that idea; be careful what you wish for. So Margo feels guilty. She's had the relationship with Lucas, but she's always been in love with Isaiah. She saved him in the pilot with the cheating and now here she is, kind of saving him again. And because he wishes that he was back, and then that idea of her bringing him back is what allows Kanduu to come back into Mr. Bratt.

"And Bratt's whole story is being careful what you wish for. He wants so badly to be this writer, to be successful, to have this, that he's willing to do whatever he has to do so."

This finale is the second time in a couple of weeks Goosebumps has pulled the rug out from under viewers with a surprising episode ending. The eighth episode of Season 1 largely felt like a finale, with the heroes defeating what they thought was the evil force harming their town. Bittle, however, was just a symptom. Slappy/Kanduu was the real problem.

That episode essentially launched the final act of the season, flipping the script and setting up a different story for the last two hours of the season.

"Part of that is just the canon of Goosebumps. There's always a twist," Letterman explained. "The other part of that is just the way we designed all 10 episodes. It really is a big movie structure, and that was the tee-up for the big act three in episodes nine and ten."

Goosebumps Season 2

There hasn't yet been any word from Disney or Sony about a potential second season for Goosebumps. The EPs admitted they are feeling good about the show's chances, but nothing has been made official.

Before the show premiered in October, Goosebumps producer Conor Welch laid out the creative team's hopes for Season 2, provided there's news of a renewal.

"We lucked out so significantly with the cast that we were able to assemble for this show. These five relatively unknown young adult actors just immediately found a chemistry and were able to play into their very natural and organic dynamics they had within the group," Welch expressed to ComicBook.com. "Our hope is to follow this group of kids and adults for many, many more seasons and many, many more episodes to come. Because we do have every one of the books of the canon at our disposal, and there's just a lot more to dig into."

What did you think of the Goosebumps finale? Let us know in the comments!

16 years after a Thanksgiving "trailer" was produced as a part of the Grindhouse double feature, Eli Roth has finally turned his twisted vision into a feature-length holiday slasher. Thanksgiving, the real movie, is now playing in theaters everywhere, giving horror fans a new story to sink their teeth into. Of course, with the release of any new movie (especially one that could be a potential franchise) comes the question of the infamous post-credits scene. Does Thanksgiving have some sort of bonus or hidden secret waiting at the end of the credits?

Thanksgiving leaves room for a sequel with its third act, but it doesn't include any sort of important tag after the credits. You won't miss anything important if you leave during the credits. That said, there is a little something on the screen after the credits get done rolling, it's just more of a joke than an actual scene or tease.

After the Thanksgiving credits, there's brief outtake sequence from one of the scenes earlier in the film. If you want a laugh after the film wraps up, it's worth sticking around for, but missing it won't take away from the experience of the movie itself.

Potential Thanksgiving Franchise?

There's no big tag at the end of the Thanksgiving credits to set up a sequel, but the film does that on its own. There are definitely some seeds planted for future stories, and Eli Roth recently spoke to ComicBook.com about his hopes for more Thanksgiving movies down the road.

"Well, we didn't really think too much beyond this movie, but as we were shooting, you start joking around going, 'Oh yeah, we could do a movie set there, we could do this, we could do that. The Thanksgivingverse'" Roth told us. "I mean, it's completely up to the fans. But we had such a great time making it and the more you think about it, the more ideas you get. And working with this cast, which is a dream cast, the cast of a lifetime, and reuniting with Milan [Chadima] my DP from Hostel and Hostel II and the original [Thanksgiving] trailer. We were like, we don't want to stop. It was one of those shoots. It was so fast, when the shoot ended, we were really sad it was over. We thought, 'Okay, how can we get back to this?' So if the movie does well, I'd love to continue it."

Thanksgiving is now playing in theaters.

Eli Roth's Thanksgiving has been in the making for quite a long time. It started as a trailer for a nonexistent movie that was included in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse double featured way back in 2007. Roth and co-wrtier Jeff Rendell had the idea since they were younger, and that initial trailer got fans everywhere begging to see the full movie someday. That day has finally arrived, 16 years after that trailer, as Thanksgiving is being released in theaters everywhere. Hopefully, this long-awaited debut is just the start of a new slasher franchise.

Without spoiling anything about the film itself, Thanksgiving does leave enough meat on the bone to fuel a sequel, though whether or not a sequel actually happens will likely depend on how many people head out to see it. ComicBook.com spoke to Eli Roth ahead of Thanksgiving's theatrical debut and asked the filmmaker about his hopes for sequels or a full franchise.

"Well, we didn't really think too much beyond this movie, but as we were shooting, you start joking around going, 'Oh yeah, we could do a movie set there, we could do this, we could do that. The Thanksgivingverse'" Roth told us. "I mean, it's completely up to the fans. But we had such a great time making it and the more you think about it, the more ideas you get. And working with this cast, which is a dream cast, the cast of a lifetime, and reuniting with Milan [Chadima] my DP from Hostel and Hostel II and the original [Thanksgiving] trailer. We were like, we don't want to stop. It was one of those shoots. It was so fast, when the shoot ended, we were really sad it was over. We thought, 'Okay, how can we get back to this?' So if the movie does well, I'd love to continue it."

With a modest budget (reportedly around $15 million), it's easy to envision Thanksgiving making enough money to warrant the sequel treatment, especially with the glowing reviews the film has received. Should that sequel happen, it'll be interesting to see what kind of story it follows. It would make sense to see another Turkey Day slasher but, ss Roth mentioned, perhaps another holiday could come into play.

Thanksgiving stars Patrick Dempsey, Rick Hoffman, Nell Verlaque, Milo Manheim, Addison Rae, Caren Cliche, Shailyn Griffen, Jenna Warren, Mike Amonsen, Gabriel Davenport, Jalen Thomas Brooks, and Gina Gershon. The film is now playing in theaters.

20th Century Studios has revealed a first look and confirmed a release date for the upcoming The First Omen, a prequel to the 1976 Academy Award-winning horror movie, The Omen. The First Omen is scheduled to be released exclusively in movie theaters on April 5, 2024; only one other movie is scheduled for that current release date, an "Untitled Universal Event Film," which may not even be released on that date anyway. One week after The First Omen will debut in theaters though it has stiff competition with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire arriving in theaters on April 12. There's also the week after that, April 19th, which will see the release of Radio Silence's Universal Monsters movie. In short, April is officially the new October.

You can find the first official photo for The First Omen below. 20th Century Studios has also released a synopsis for The First Omen which reads: "When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate."

The First Omen cast

In announcing the release date and first look at The First Omen, 20th Century Studios confirmed the cast for the film as well which includes: Nell Tiger Free (Game of Thrones), Tawfeek Barhom (Mary Magdalene), Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Ralph Ineson (The Northman), and Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest). The First Omen is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer, with a story by Ben Jacoby (Bleed) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter). The prequel is produced David S. Goyer (Hellraiser, The Dark Knight) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (Rosaline), and Gracie Wheelan.

The Omen began with the 1976 original film from director Richard Donner and starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, and David Warner. In the film, an American diplomat (Peck) and his wife (Remick) suffer a tragedy when their baby dies shortly after being born, a local chaplain convinces them to adopt a baby that is at the same hospital but whose mother died during child birth, which is how the Thorn family gets their son, Damien. As the film progresses its central mystery is if Damien really is the Anti-Christ as wild events begin to surround the family and prophecies foretell of his arrival.

Grossing over $60 million on a $2 million budget, with composer Jerry Goldsmith winning the Academy Award for Best Original Score, The Omen's success quickly gave way to same path countless other horror movies followed, franchising. Damien: Omen II was released just two years later, following a teenage Damien coming to terms with his place as the Antichrist while in military school. Omen III: The Final Conflict would arrive in 1981, starring a young Sam Neill as a now grown up Damien Thorn. Omen IV: The Awakening would be released a decade later.

In 2006 a remake of The Omen was released, premiering in theaters exclusively so it could have the release date of June 6, 2006 (referencing the "number of the beast," 666). A television series reboot was made in 2016, simply titled Damien. Developed by Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead), the series lasted just one season on A&E.

Blumhouse released some big hits this year, and they're back next year with a brand-new horror film about a young girl who has an imaginary friend. In classic Blumhouse fashion, the imaginary friend in question isn't exactly friendly. The film was directed by Jeff Wadlow, who wrote the film with Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, and stars Jurassic World Dominion's DeWanda Wise.

"Imaginary - In theaters on March 8th. Starring DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegan Burns, Pyper Braun, with Veronica Falcon, and Betty Buckley," Blumhouse shared on YouTube. "From Blumhouse, the genre-defining masterminds behind FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S and M3GAN, comes an original horror that taps into the innocence of imaginary friends - and begs the question: Are they really figments of childhood imagination or is something more terrifying lying just beneath?" You can check out the trailer below:

Official Imaginary Description:

"When Jessica (DeWanda Wise) moves back into her childhood home with her family, her youngest stepdaughter Alice develops an eerie attachment to a stuffed bear named Chauncey she finds in the basement. Alice starts playing games with Chauncey that begin playful and become increasingly sinister. As Alice's behavior becomes more and more concerning, Jessica intervenes only to realize Chauncey is much more than the stuffed toy bear she believed him to be."

On casting Wise in the lead role, Wadlow explained, "DeWanda has been more than a star on this movie - she has been a full creative partner. So much of horror grows out of our most basic fears from childhood, and DeWanda taps into all of that. You know that old saying that the audience's imagination is scarier than any movie? We're going to put that to the test."

Jeff Wadlow's Horror History:

Wadlow previously helmed Truth or Dare in 2018 and Fantasy Island in 2020. He also helmed Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Curse of the Shadows, a four-episode reboot of the beloved '90s anthology series. Wadlow was also one of the writers of Bloodshot, the Valiant Comics adaptation starring Vin Diesel. Unfortunately, the movie was released in theaters one week before the COVID pandemic caused movie theaters to shut down around the world.

What Is They Listen?

Back in July, Sony announced an updated list of their release schedule, which saw some major films getting pushed back. There were also a couple of movies on the list that have been removed from the schedule altogether, including the Blumhouse movie, They Live. Originally, the film was supposed to be released this year but was recently delayed until August 2, 2024. Now, the film is listed as "TBC" on Sony's line-up.

Blumhouse's They Listen is set to star John Cho and Katherine Waterston and will be directed by Chris Weitz, who is best known for helming About a Boy, The Golden Compass, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon. The film will also feature Riki Lindhome, Lukita Maxwell, and Greg Hill. The film marks the eleventh collaboration between Cho and Weitz who originally worked together on American Pie. For now, the plot of They Listen is unknown. Jason Blum, Weitz, and Andrew Miano are producing the project while Bea Sequeira, Dan Balgoyen, Britta Rowings, and Paul Davis are serving as executive producers.

Imaginary is currently set to hit theaters on March 8, 2024. Stay tuned for updates about They Listen.

The Deviant is told across a couple of different timelines, but the chronological tale begins in December of 1973. Someone (or perhaps something) dressed as Santa Claus brutally murders two young men in Milwaukee. A man named Randall Olsen is arrested for the crimes, after being caught in possession of pictures of the two boys. He is dubbed the Deviant Killer, and stories spread through the area about the horrible things he did to the young men, both before and after killing them. In the 40 years since the murders, Randall maintains that he's an innocent man. That's where Michael comes in.

Michael, the protagonist of the series, is a writer in 2023 with a connection to the stories of the Deviant Killer. Growing up queer and in the Midwest, Michael's first experience with anything remotely resembling homosexuality was hearing tales of the killer being sexually involved with the boys he murdered. Now, as an adult, Michael is spending time interviewing Randall Olsen about the 40-year-old crimes and trying to uncover the truth.

Hixson's art style is a perfect fit for Tynion's eerie and emotionally complex narrative. It's simple and soft, inviting you in and making you feel comfortable - a lot like the Christmas holiday should. It's a warm fire broken up by the chilling scenes in the cold winter snow. From the very first page, however, there's a darkness that keeps you unsettled. The cozy feelings have an ominous undertone that sets the stage for the story to come.

When that darkness takes over--in both art and story--it pulls you in ever deeper. The Deviant is a perfect marriage of pen and paintbrush between these two artists.

When the comic book was announced, Tynion opened up about how his own experiences influenced this story. For him, it was media like The Silence of the Lambs offering his first experience with how other people viewed and described homosexuality. For Michael, it was the Deviant Killer. Those early ties with who they knew themselves to be and the monsters being described to them creates a harrowing experience for young men trying to accept and love theselves.

In these stories, The Deviant brings to light a part of the queer experience that I'd imagine many haven't given a thought before. The way in which our larger culture views an entire group of people shapes how young people in that group see themselves and the world around them, which can be both heartbreaking and terrifying. This perspective offers a brand new lens for these types of crime stories and makes The Deviant stand out in a sea of seemingly similar mysteries.

The Deviant #1 satisfies on multiple fronts. If you're just looking for a murder story set at Christmastime, the comic book delivers that ten times over. It's an excellent read for a cold, dark night. But if you're willing to get a little uncomfortable and allow The Deviant to tell you something about the world you don't already know, it becomes something truly special.

Published by Image Comics

On November 15, 2023

Written by James Tynion IV

Art by Joshua Hixson

Colors by Joshua Hixson

Letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Cover by Joshua Hixson

The initial Thanksgiving trailer seen in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse is mean, grimy, gratuitous, and relentlessly exploitative. It was always supposed to be, paying homage to the cheap productions that filled those double features decades ago. Making an actual Thanksgiving feature film the exact same way it was depicted in that trailer was never going to work, but it also had to appease the fans that have been willing it into existence. Roth and co-writer Jeff Rendell find the perfect balance with the long-awaited Thanksgiving, pulling off the impossible task of creating a modern (and thoroughly entertaining) slasher with plenty of Grindhouse spirit.

Thanksgiving begins with a Black Friday riot at a local Plymouth big box store, which results in the (incredibly violent, Final Destination-style) deaths of multiple people in town. One year later, as Plymouth tries to get the November holiday back to normal, a killer donning a mask of colony founder John Carver begins to murder those he feels are responsible for the riot. As Thanksgiving approaches, John Carver is setting his own table with the bodies of his victims, posting updates on social media and tagging a group of teenagers that accidentally incited the entire incident. It's up to Jessica (Nell Verlaque), her friends, and Sheriff Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) to discover the killer behind the mask before they all end up dead.

While theming a slasher film after a holiday may seem gimmicky on the surface, Thanksgiving is anything but. This is a straight-up, tried and true slasher film, the likes of which we've largely been missing in recent years. There's an element of camp to the whole thing -- brilliantly established in the opening Black Friday sequence that sets a darkly fun and engaging tone -- but that camp element never gives way to full-on comedy, as has been the case with so many contemporary slashers. Thanksgiving is able to slice through the gore and thrills with a bit of silliness and some laughs here and there, yet it always veers back towards the thrills and violence precisely when it needs to.

Roth became known early in his career for carnage and gore. The likes of Hostel and The Green Inferno put torture and excessive bloodshed front and center, making them hard to sit through for some. There's only so much you can do with dark, gruesome violence before it all feels unnecessary, but Thanksgiving represents an evolution for Roth. The violence in this film pushes the boundaries of what we're used to seeing lately, and it never shies away from its goriest bits. It can be absolutely gnarly at times, especially when it pulls from a couple of key scenes from the original Grindhouse trailer. But there's a layer of excitable, demented glee laying over the entire film like a blanket. A particularly gruesome kill will make you squirm or grab the person sitting next to you, but we're all in on the joke this time around. Instead of placing viewers in the room with victims, a la Hostel, Roth slyly pulls you behind the camera next to him, almost as if he's nudging your ribs and leaning over to say, "Oh man, you're gonna love this part."

For fans of the original Thanksgiving trailer, you're going to be satisfied by how the story is actually translated into a feature. It doesn't have that exploitative tone, but it doesn't hold itself back for the sake of a modern audience. It's easy to tell just how big of an influence the original Scream was for Roth here. It's not the instant all-timer, "reset the entire genre" type of movie that was, but it did learn all the right lessons; something so many Scream-copycats of the 2000s failed at.

There's also a good dash of Final Destination sprinkled on top, which makes Thanksgiving even more of a romp that's best enjoyed with as many people as you can pack into a room. We've all come to expect when a killer is about to do something crazy, but there are a few truly unhinged "accidents" in this movie that turn things all the way up to 11 and are sure to have at least a couple people in every theater shouting involuntarily at the screen. There's a particular moment involving a parade float and a pickup truck that's sure to be both a monumental crowd-pleaser and one of the biggest cover-your-eyes scenes of the year.

As for the murder mystery itself, there's nothing incredibly surprising going on in Thanksgiving, but that's never the focus. The killer is revealed --there's a good chance you'll see it coming -- and they help deliver a great finale. An ax-wielding killer yelling "There will be no leftovers" in front of a giant inflatable turkey will never not be a fantastic time at the movies.

Thanksgiving is the best directorial effort of Eli Roth's career, and I don't think it's particularly close. The thrills are good, the gore is great, and I'm thankful for the bountiful harvest of slasher goodness the film provides. At long last, another film finally gets to join Planes, Trains and Automobiles in the great Turkey Day film canon. As always, the greatest gifts come from the most unexpected places.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Thanksgiving arrives in theaters on November 17th.

Marvel's Alien comic series is gearing up for its 2024 installment (Vol. 4) "Descendants" - and it already sounds like it's going to be a terrifying read!

Alien (2023) creative team Declan Shalvey and Andrea Broccardo return with artist Ruth Redmond also pitching in. This new tale will drop any of the early pretenses seen in most Alien movies, as the Weyland-Yutani sends a group of human fodder to a planet overrun by Xenomorphs, in order to secure the all-important MacGuffin prize of harnessing the aliens' unique genetics for corporate gain.

Shalvey's previous story arc "Thaw" saw the Xenomorphs escape a deep freeze on a remote planet and wipe out the colonists working there. The story featured a fearsome new breed of Xenomorph, born from another alien species that lived on the planet (See: Alien: Annual #1). Taken altogether, "Thaw" was a story of slow-building horror, and really a spectacle worthy of the screen.

It's never implicitly been said that these installments of Alien comics can't crossover - we certainly saw it in Marvel's Predator anthology series. Now, the preview pages for Alien (2024) confirm that this story will be a sequel to "Thaw". The preview pages for Alien #1 reveal a return for "Deserted Ice Moon LV-695" where the wreckage and corpses of the colony team remain frozen in the ice. Unfortunately, it's made clear that the species of Xenomorphs born from the beasts of LV-695 are very much active on the planet.

The human characters are shown to be on a private vessel, as Jun Yutani III (one fo the family members of the Weyland-Yutani corporate empire) is the one who owns the ship and is bankrolling the expedition. Unfortunately for the crew we're introduced to, they have no idea the big payday they're getting is really coming at the likely cost of their lives.

However, the manager of the crew, "Cole," already seems like there's more to her than anyone knows. It seems obvious that she could be Zasha, the survivor of "Thaw" whose mother was once doing experiments on the Xenomorphs - and even implanted one into her own body.

"It's such a joy to continue to build out our own little corner of Marvel Comics' Alien universe with this new 'Descendant' story arc," Shalvey previously told Marvel.com. "We're building on what we've done before (with some nods to previous stories) and get to dig a bit deeper in this arc (both figuratively and literally). It's also a real treat for me to draw a section of the story."

Get a synopsis for the Alien (2024) story arc, "Descendant", below:

EVERYONE WILL HEAR YOU SCREAM! In deep space spins a world infected by the universe's greatest killers. Most people - sane people - would construct a barrier thicker than the hulls of ten Nostromos and leave it to rot. But where most people see a death trap, Weyland-Yutani sees the biggest payout in the history of civilization. And if it costs a few human lives to secure? Those come cheap here. Corporate corruption, personal betrayals and extraordinary violence - Declan Shalvey and Andrea Broccardo's next and greatest Alien story starts here!

Written by: Declan Shalvey
Art by: Andrea Broccardo, Ruth Redmond
Cover by: Javier Fernandez
Page Count: 40 Pages
Release Date: November 15, 2023

After becoming a breakout success for Netflix, pre-production on the next batch of Wednesday episodes is moving right along. Monday, it was reported the second season of the Jenna Ortega vehicle is eyeing a production start next spring. Furthermore, the series will be moving from Romania, the locale it filmed the entirety of its first season, to the rolling hills of Ireland.

Little is known about the story of the second season, one in which Ortega has found a more hands-on role behind the camera on.

"We had already been throwing out so many ideas, and I'm somebody who's very hands-on. I want to know what's going on," Ortega admitted earlier this year. "And with a character like Wednesday, who is so beloved and such a legend, I just really didn't want to get her wrong. So I try to have as many conversations as possible. On set, with the writers and Tim [Burton], we all would get together and decide, 'Okay, what works and what doesn't?' It was naturally already very collaborative."

She continued, "So in preparation for a second season, we wanted to get ahead of the curve and make sure that we could start the conversations earlier ... And I'm just so curious. I want to see the outfits, new characters that are coming in, scripts, and they were gracious enough to let me put the producer hat on."

In that very chat, Ortega added the show will be removing any sort of love interest for her Wednesday Addams, a pivot away from the tone of the show's first season.

"We've decided we want to lean into the horror aspect of the show a little bit more," Ortega revealed during a conversation with Elle Fanning for Variety. "Because it is so lighthearted, and a show like this with vampires and werewolves and superpowers, you don't want to take yourself too seriously."

She added, "We're ditching any romantic love interest for Wednesday, which is really great."

Stay tuned for details on Season 2 of Wednesday, or tune into Netflix to watch the first season of the show.

The Conjuring universe has established itself as a titan in the horror genre. First coming onto the scene over one decade ago, The Conjuring told a tale from the real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren's paranormal investigation careers. While it began as a standalone, The Conjuring planted plenty of seeds in its initial installment to birth sequels and spin-offs. The Conjuring itself would go on to get a complete trilogy while both Annabelle and The Nun received spin-off spotlight. Both Annabelle and The Nun were successful enough on their own to turn into franchises themselves.

The Nun II is Michael Chaves's "Best Film Yet"

The vast world of The Conjuring continued this past September with The Nun II, a sequel to its 2018 predecessor. Helming this project was Michael Chaves (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) in just his third feature film outing.

"I think it's easily the best film I've made yet," Chaves said of The Nun II. "I think that you're always trying to get better. You're always trying to just push things and stretch different muscles. It was amazing shooting this in France. Just shooting in another country I think that added a whole other level to the film, just like the look and the texture.

"It's funny. Before I did (movies), I shot all these commercials and I was so cocky. I was like, 'I can do a movie. It's like a whole bunch of commercials altogether!'" Chaves continued. "Then I do La Llorona and like it's so much harder than you imagine. Then after that I'm like, 'Okay, I can do Conjuring 3. I did one movie. This is going to be easy.' Then you just learn all these new lessons. It's just always a process. You think all the lessons would just immediately apply to the next movie, but there's always new challenges. I think that that's kind of what's exciting and scary about it."

Those new challenges were exemplified in The Nun II's tagline: "The greatest evil in The Conjuring universe."

"That was all on [The Demon Nun actress] Bonnie (Aarons). I was like, 'Bonnie, this is on you. I don't know what to do with that tagline,'" Chaves said. "Honestly, I think we had a great script to start out with. I think that think people love the character. I think they love the character that [The Conjuring director and franchise producer] James (Wam) created and Bonnie has really just run with. She's iconic. I think that that's something that just really resonated with people. I just try to come up with the scariest moments and ideas possible to try and put these characters through the ringer."

The Nun II is available on home media this Tuesday, November 14th.

When it comes to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Leatherface has long been the star of the show, but some fans of the game aren't as fond of the killer. As it currently stands, a match cannot start unless someone is playing as the villain. However, that requirement will soon be changing. During a recent Twitch Q&A, Gun Media president and CEO Wes Keltner revealed that by the end of November, Leatherface will no longer be a requirement to start a match. Keltner and Matt Szep were quick to note that there will be "growing pains" as a result of this change, and some players might realize that they may have taken the villain for granted. However, if it works out as planned, players will have more freedom to choose the character that they want.

It will be interesting to see what impact this change will have on the game, and how many matches will still see Leatherface appearing. On one hand, it's hard to imagine the game without the killer, but on the other hand, the change could offer players a lot more freedom. One of the biggest highlights of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is that the game does not put all the pressure on one killer, as there are three Family members that appear in each match. In matches that don't have Leatherface in them, those players are going to have to pick up the slack in order to keep things competitive.

Texas Chain Saw Toilet Flushers

According to a new statistic shared by Gun Media, 644,120 toilets were flushed during matches over the last month. Apparently, the "top culprits" that have been doing this in the game are those that play Hitchhiker on the Family side and Leland on the Victim side. It's a bizarre statistic, but as the game's developers note, it's actually a good way of causing a distraction!

After sharing the statistic on the game's official Twitter account, several players chimed in to offer possible explanations. Some players have used the toilet just for fun, with some admitting to doing it several times in one play session. However, others have found that it's easy to accidentally trigger the toilet while going through crawl space on the gas station map. In fact, many players took the opportunity to air their frustrations with that particular map design. It's unclear if the developers might change it in the future, but players should be aware of the risk that crawl space represents!

Texas Chain Saw Massacre Future Content

Last month saw new content added to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in the form of new skins for the game's cast, and a special Leatherface design created by Greg Nicotero. Last week, the developers also revealed that there are currently more than 250 fixes in testing, including the removal of the cutscene that plays when Grandpa awakens; this will soon be replaced with a simple banner notifying players. Readers can learn more about these changes right here.

Are you happy this requirement is changing for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Do you think it will improve the game? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend is only one adaptation of the 1954 story of the same name from Richard Matheson, which notably had both a theatrical ending and an alternate ending that was abandoned, though both of those endings deviate from the actual finale in the source material. While the alternate ending falls more closely in line with the source material, Lawrence recently detailed how he wished he had entirely honored the conclusion of the Matheson novel, noting how a previous live-action adaptation had been more faithful and audiences weren't entirely dismayed. A sequel is reportedly on the way with Will Smith set to return.

"I prefer the original ending to the two that we have. But the truth is now I would've built it do be able to do the ending from the novella, truly just do that story," Lawrence recently recalled to the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "But with the money being spent, everybody was nervous about doing something so nihilistic. But looking back I feel like everybody went to see The Last Man on Earth and enjoyed it for that reason and would've still enjoyed [I Am Legend] with the nihilistic ending."

The premise of I Am Legend sees a disease overtaking humanity and turns them into nocturnal, bloodthirsty monsters akin to vampires, with Robert Neville (Smith) managing to survive the apocalyptic event. In Lawrence's adaptation, Neville regularly kills and captures these creatures to experiment on in hopes of finding a "cure." In the theatrical ending, Neville offers a fatal sacrifice to help fellow survivors escape, possibly allowing them to spread his research to find a potential cure.

The alternate ending instead shows Neville nearly being overtaken by these creatures, only to realize that they have high enough mental functions to not be attacking him, but merely trying to rescue one of the creatures that he took captive. Neville survives and realizes that, to these creatures, it's actually he who was the monster. This alternate ending falls more in line with the source material, though the Matheson story sees Neville realizing the impact he would have on the future of these beings, uttering, "I am legend," before he dies from consuming suicide pills.

The planned sequel will honor the alternate ending as canon as opposed to the theatrical ending, with it still being possible that the follow-up could find a way to more authentically replicate the events of the original story.

Stay tuned for updates on the I Am Legend sequel.

Which ending do you prefer? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

The trajectory of most slasher franchises is that, after the initial installment, sequels descend further into obscurity, but with the Terrifier franchise, fans have been growing more passionate with each entry in the series, with the first teaser for Terrifier 3 having been unveiled online. While the initial movie earned a very limited release, it was its arrival on streaming services that led to its popularity, ultimately allowing Terrifier 2 to earn screenings in major markets, with those screenings turning out impressive profits. This should allow Terrifier 3 to be bolder, bigger, and bloodier than fans had ever expected, as you can catch glimpses of in the below teaser. Check out the Terrifier 3 teaser below before it hits theaters on October 25, 2024.

"Terrifier 2's remarkable success was driven not only by the insatiable appetite for new and thrilling horror icons like Art the Clown but also by its unparalleled theatrical release and marketing, along with its unyielding spirit," writer/director Damien Leone shared of the release. "In a cinematic landscape where risk-taking is scarce, I will continue to push boundaries in Terrifier 3,and I can't wait for you to see what's in store for Art the Clown."

"In the world of horror, Damien Leone's Terrifier franchise stands as a defiant embodiment of anti-Hollywood ethos," Brad Miska, Managing Director of Bloody Disgusting, added. "With an unwavering commitment to delivering precisely what the fans desire, Leone has crafted an entirely independent sequel. Terrifier 3 is going to have nastier kills, a bigger budget, and an even crazier storyline."

Per press release, "During the re-release of Terrifier 2 in theaters on November 1st, which came in at number 5 in gross box office, fans had the opportunity to catch the Terrifier 3 teaser. The teaser also revealed an intriguing twist -- the upcoming installment will be Christmas-themed, adding an extra layer of anticipation for horror enthusiasts. In the third installment of Damien Leone's breakout horror film, Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.

"The release date of Terrifier 3 is two years after its predecessor, Terrifier 2, which was released theatrically on October 6, 2022. The ultra-gory, 138-minute unrated film ravaged theaters during its highly publicized theatrical run, pulling in over $11 Million in domestic box office. During that time, Terrifier 2 found its way to mainstream press with Variety detailing how Terrifier 2 'became this year's unlikeliest box office success' and how the film 'is inspiring horror fiends and skeptics to go to their local cinemas in droves to assess the hype for themselves.' Terrifier 2 became CERTIFIED FRESH by Rotten Tomatoes and the movie even found its way onto Stephen King's radar with the IT author Tweeting that Terrifier 2 is 'grossin' you out old-school.' The New York Times called Terrifier 2 'the little horror movie that could' while calling it 'the most talked-about horror movie this Halloween.'

"Terrifier 2 marked the next horrifying chapter in the Art the Clown saga; in which the demonic killer, portrayed by David Howard Thornton, returns with a vengeance. Lauren LaVera became a breakout star and fans across the world embraced her as the next Final Girl. Terrifier veteran Samantha Scaffidi reprised her role as Victoria Heyes, and horror icon Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) and professional wrestler Chris Jericho (AEW) made unforgettable cameos that had audiences talking.

"Set one year after its predecessor, Terrifier 2 continued the gruesome story of Art the Clown and his insatiable thirst for murder. When a sinister force resurrects Art, he is once again upon the unsuspecting residents of Miles County. Back for another Halloween, Art sets his sights on a teenage girl and her little brother, portrayed by LaVera and Elliott Fullam, respectively, delivering a chilling and relentless tale of horror. "

Terrifier 3 hits theaters on October 25, 2024.

Are you looking forward to the sequel? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

[Spoiler alert for Sunday's "Keeping Her Alive" episode of Fear the Walking Dead.] AMC has released the trailer for the Fear the Walking Dead series finale, which ends the Walking Dead spinoff's eight-season run on November 19. Revealing the first look at the super-sized, two-episode series finale, the new trailer teases Madison Clark's (Kim Dickens) final battle against Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman), who killed her daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and now plans to destroy PADRE with a walker horde. "This is how we survive. This is how PADRE survives," Madison says in the trailer (above), which appears to hint that not everyone survives Fear's final episodes.

The official loglines:

Season 8 Episode 11: "The horde led by Troy surrounds the walls of PADRE. Madison and her people must fight for their survival to save what remains."

Season 8 Episode 12: "As the series comes to an end, the fate of PADRE's survivors seems to rest in the hands of an unexpected hero."

Potential SPOILER ALERT: The 30-second trailer for the super-sized series finale seems to tease Alicia's fate after Troy, and then his daughter Tracy (Antonella Rose), told Madison that Troy killed her. Is that Strand carrying Alicia's one-armed corpse? Ending the trailer is a shot of Madison about to bring her hammer down on Troy and Tracy -- but this time, she'll make sure he's dead.

"Daniel Sharman's so fantastic in the role, and we were really interested in both revisiting the dynamic between him and Madison and where they left off at the end of season 3, and butting that up against the person that Madison is trying to become now: someone who's trying to redeem herself for all the sins of her past, and in particular her recent sins of what she did when she worked for PADRE," showrunner Ian Goldberg told ComicBook. "To us, bringing Troy back into the story was the perfect source of antagonism emotionally for her there because he is a reminder of her past and someone who's not going to let what she did -- or what he views that she did to his family -- lie buried in the past."

"What we will come to find out is that, in some ways, Madison and Troy are like two sides of the same coin," Goldberg continued. "They're both driven for the same ultimate end goals, but their tactics are very different. Kim and Daniel are terrific together, and we were really excited to bring that character back."

The Fear the Walking Dead series finale airs November 19 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

[Spoiler alert for Sunday's "Keeping Her Alive" episode of Fear the Walking Dead.] Alicia Clark is dead. Long live Alicia Clark. The last time we saw her on season 7 of Fear the Walking Dead, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) fought off the fever from a zombie infection and went out into a radioactive wasteland to spend the time she had left helping people looking for PADRE. Fans were left to wonder whether Alicia was dead or alive... until Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) told Madison (Kim Dickens) that her daughter is dead. Troy claimed he killed Alicia and left her to roam as a walker, handing over the skeletal remains of her severed arm as proof that she's gone.

But in keeping with Madison's mantra that "no one's gone until they're gone," Sunday's episode revealed that Alicia lived long enough to inspire a group of do-gooders who banded together to do for other people what Alicia did for them. She rescued Della (Julia Wackenheim-Gimple, left) from bandits, found antibiotics for Sara (Sasha An, right) when she was sick with pneumonia, and saved the trio's leader (Nona Parker Johnson, middle) after Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) turned her away from his Tower.

Alicia's Apostles

The leader (who doesn't give her name) was one of dozens of survivors that heard the message Alicia transmitted from the Tower before it was overrun and destroyed. Alicia then shuttled the survivors to safety inside the MRAP SWAT van that once belonged to Althea (Maggie Grace), which now transports the nomads as they travel around doing "what Alicia would have done": helping people. Word spread about Alicia and it gave people hope, so the trio continued Alicia's legacy by making people believe she's still out there helping.

And though they only knew Alicia briefly, Sara says: "We're keeping her alive."

Is Alicia Clark Dead?

According to this group, Alicia is dead. Troy killed Alicia and the rest of their group for mysterious reasons. They then heard the message that Madison broadcast in the midseason finale and recognized her from the video interview that Althea taped back in season 4.

Meanwhile, Troy's daughter, Tracy (Antonella Rose), led Madison to where she claimed she would find zombie Alicia: in a herd of walkers stuck in a swamp. Tracy told Madison that Troy led the herd there so the walkers would become frozen from the cold temperatures, and that he lied about leaving Alicia to wander because he didn't want Madison to find and bury her daughter. It turned out to be a ruse: Alicia wasn't in the herd, but Tracy's zombified mother was. Troy and Tracy blame Madison for her mother's death because she believed what Madison and Alicia believed: "'No one's gone until they're gone.' It killed her, just like it killed your kids." Tracy then tried to kill Madison by feeding her to her zombie mom... so Madison nearly fed the girl to walkers before Strand arrived with Alicia's Apostles.

"Her body may not be here, but she still is," Strand told Madison. "These women, they're carrying on Alicia's legacy."

Did Troy Kill Alicia?

Tracy confessed that Troy killed Alicia in an old mansion off Route 26 near Fort Worth, Texas. According to Tracy -- who somehow has the Saint Christopher medallion that Strand gave to Alicia -- that's where Madison will find her daughter. But first, Madison is going to track down Troy, avenge Alicia, and stop her killer from unleashing his walker army on PADRE.

"Whether Troy is telling the truth is something that you're just going to have to watch the rest of the season to find out," showrunner Ian Goldberg told ComicBook. As for whether Fear the Walking Dead will definitively reveal what happened to Alicia, showrunner Andrew Chambliss added: "We will definitely find out whether or not Troy's story is true, and what actually went down between Troy and Alicia."

Fear the Walking Dead airs its two-episode series finale November 19 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Last week's episode of Fear the Walking Dead ended with Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) revealing his plan to save PADRE: using Troy's (Daniel Sharman) daughter as leverage to keep the island safe. Complicating this is June (Jenna Elfman), Dwight (Austin Amelio), and Sherry (Christine Evangelista), who don't trust Strand after his actions at the Tower cost people their lives. "We've all done things to build and survive," says Strand, who thinks survival means keeping Troy's daughter on the island; the others argue it makes them more of a target. But PADRE is Strand's last chance to do good on what he promised Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey), so he bites the bullet and agrees to go with them to surrender the girl to her father.

June, Dwight, and Sherry plan to hand Strand over Troy along with his daughter Tracy (Antonella Rose), who they've blindfolded so she doesn't know the way to the island that is "impossible to find." Strand fears what will happen when they return Tracy to her father -- "a sociopath on a revenge tour," as Strand puts it -- but Sherry counters that Strand is really looking out for himself. "This isn't about me," he insists. "It's about her. It's about PADRE. It's about building the place that Alicia wanted me to build."

But they'll do that without Strand. June raises Troy on the radio and tells him they'll bring him his daughter -- and the man who took her -- if he assures them he won't attack PADRE. Troy and his army can keep the hotel they took from Strand, and Madison went AWOL from PADRE, so whatever vendetta he had against her isn't with them. It's a deal, so Strand removes Tracy's blindfold and tells her to remember her surroundings. If they hand her over to her father, she'll give up PADRE's location. Strand and Tracy jump overboard and make their way to shore, where Strand notices she's wearing the Saint Christopher's medallion he once gave to Alicia.

The PADRE group have made their way on land in search of Tracy, so there's no time to explain. Strand takes the girl to "the one person who can help both of us": Madison Clark (Kim Dickens). She's bludgeoning walkers with her sledge hammer to the tune of Motley Cue's "Live Wire" when Strand (somehow) finds her in the woods. She wants Nick and Alicia to be at rest, but first, she needs to find the zombified Alicia and put her down.

Madison assures Tracy she won't make her pay for her father's crimes -- killing Alicia and a lot of other things he probably didn't tell her about. "He told me everything. How you killed his father, how you turned his brother against him, how you left him for dead at the dam," Tracy tells Madison. "You also killed my mother."

Madison doesn't know Tracy's mother, and she doesn't know why Strand bothered to bring her here. The medallion means she can help them find Alicia, and finding Alicia means they can save Tracy from her father. Madison is angry that Strand is giving away PADRE's location and the one thing keeping Troy from attacking it, but he argues that it's the only play he had. And it's what Alicia would have done. "Madison, you're the only person who knows the man who I used to be and still believes that I've changed, so believe me when I say this: this isn't about saving my own skin," he says, earnestly. "It's about saving hers, too."

Tracy has no choice but to lead Madison and Strand to Alicia, so they stop at one of the way stations that Luciana established throughout the state. They're somewhere near Milledgeville, Georgia, and eavesdropping on radio chatter reveals that they're far from Troy's people. On another channel, they hear women looking for Madison and following the coordinates she broadcast over the radio earlier in the season, but they don't recognize the voices. Tracy reports that Troy's fight with Alicia happened farther north, so Strand leaves his walkie-talkie and digs around for a larger map. A slipper Tracy snatches the walkie and manages to report to her dad that she's at a gas station off Route 204. "Do you even know where Alicia is?" No answer, so a furious Madison growls: "Don't make me ask you that again."

Before Tracy can reveal what she knows about Alicia, a trucker convoy of Luciana (Danay Garcia), Daniel Salazar (Rub?n Blades), and their people arrive. They heard the radio chatter, and they heard Tracy give away the location of the truck stop. Madison asks Luciana to let her pass so they can use her road network to find Alicia and put her to rest. Luciana doesn't want to risk her people getting into a fight, so she wants Madison and Strand to hand over the girl so they can return her to Troy. Daniel rightfully figures that Troy already knows about the truck stop and will attack them to take everything they have, so he tells her to set up a defensive perimeter. Meanwhile, he'll ride along with Madison and Strand to find out if they cut a deal with Troy. He does this under the guise of wanting to help Madison find and bury Alicia, but Strand figures out that what Daniel really wants is to get his revenge on Troy for causing his daughter Ofelia's death.

Strand tries to take Tracy with him, so Madison ditches him on the side of the road and peels off with Daniel. Tracy leads them north to a herd of walkers literally frozen in their tracks. As Tracy tells it, the zombified Alicia was in the herd that followed them as they traveled before the weather got cold. He didn't want the walker herd to get near the hotel and, knowing the mud would freeze them in place when the temperature dropped, marched them to this frigid stomping ground. Troy told Madison that he didn't know where Alicia is, but he lied: "He didn't want you to find her," Tracy says. "He didn't want you to bury her." Tracy looks at Alicia's medallion around her neck, but how it came to be in her possession goes unanswered as they make their way into the herd.

Meanwhile, the stranded Strand is surrounded by walkers when he's saved by the machine guns of the MRAP SWAT van that once belonged to Althea. Driving the armored vehicle is a woman with a bladed gauntlet that she uses to stab a walker through the brain and save Strand's life. The mystery person is... not Alicia Clark. "I get that a lot," says the unnamed young woman (Nona Parker Johnson) accompanied by Della (Julia Wackenheim-Gimple) and Sara (Sasha An).

Alicia's Apostles -- as we'll call them because the group isn't given a name -- tell Strand that Alicia told them about him before she died. Before Troy killed her. They don't just dress lke Alicia. "We're keeping her alive," they say, explaining how Alicia passed through all of their lives: she saved Della's settlement from bandits, found antibiotics for Sara when she came down with pneumonia, and offered their leader shelter when she was turned away from Strand's Tower. She was with her father when they heard Alicia transmit a message telling the survivors of nuclear fallout to come to the Tower, but by the time they got there, it was destroyed. Dozens of people arrived at the Tower and were then shuttled to safety by Alicia, using the MRAP to drive them out of the wasteland. Her father eventually succumbed to radiation poisoning from exposure, a revelation that causes the remorseful Strand to apologize. Why did she save him? "It's what Alicia would have done," she says.

By her own admission, they didn't spend much time with Alicia. The fevers she was suffering from apparently stopped, but once Alicia got their group settled, she went off to help more people. That's the last they ever saw of her. Alicia became an avenging nomad, never staying in one place for too long. "Word spread about her. It gave people hope," Sara explains. "We're trying to spread some of the same." Strand asks the leader her name, but she doesn't answer. Because they want Alicia's legacy to continue, "It's better if people believe she's still out there helping." They heard Madison's message on the radio, so they tracked her down to help take down Troy. They don't know why Troy killed Alicia, but they know that she's not the only one he killed: There used to be more of them.

Strand radios Troy to tell him he can save Tracy -- but to find her, Troy has to tell him where he hid Alicia. But first, Troy and his men get into a standoff with Luciana and her men at the truck stop. Daniel's plan to surround Troy worked. Luciana wants Troy to stand down so they can negotiate a cease-fire, so he accepts Strand's offer. Back at the mountain, Madison and Daniel notice that the herd of frozen walkers -- most of them dressed in ranch and western wear -- followed Troy from out west. They advance into the herd, where Madison finds a long-haired, one-armed walker.

Only it's not Alicia. Madison realizes this just before Tracy shoves her into the walker -- it's Tracy's mother, and she wanted her to make Madison pay. "She saw you and Alicia. She believed what you believed. That's why she's dead," Tracy reveals. "No one's gone until they're gone.' It killed her, just like it killed your kids."

Realizing that Tracy led her on a wild goose chase that nearly got her killed, Madison tells Daniel they need to figure out what to do with the girl. "She knows where PADRE is. If Troy ever gets her back... there's only one way to protect the island." It dawns on Daniel that Madison is talking about killing Tracy. Ice cold! When Daniel asks if Madison has the stomach to kill a little girl, she responds that "she just tried to use her own mother to kill me." Daniel ties Tracy to a tree, so she finally reveals the truth about Alicia: Troy killed her in an old mansion near Route 26 near Fort Worth, Texas.

That doesn't change the fact that Tracy knows where PADRE is, so Madison uses her hammer to shove a walker towards Tracy... but before she can feed Troy's daughter to a walker, Strand shows up with Alicia's Apostles and tells Madison that her daughter is alive -- in a sense. "Her body may not be here, but she still is. These women, they're carrying on Alicia's legacy," he says, stopping Madison from going after Tracy when she frees herself from her restraints. Tracy takes off into the herd, stirring the walkers from their frozen slumber. It's too dangerous to go after her, so Tracy escapes.

Back at the truck stop, a shootout happened off-screen. Daniel reports that Madison and Strand had nothing to do with the assault; in turn, Luciana says they had Troy's men surrounded, but they seemed to not care whether they lived or died. Among the casualties is Hildy (Frank Hildebrand), one of the German tourists from "Anton's" hotel. Strand and Frank want to avenge their slain friends, and Madison is on the warpath. She needs to track down Troy and kill him before he finds Tracy and then finds PADRE.

Troy isn't going to use his men to take the island, Madison realizes. He's going to do what he did at Broke Jaw Ranch: unleash a walker herd and destroy PADRE. Luciana says she'll take Madison to Fort Worth after they finish this fight with Troy -- a fight she'll finish herself. Alicia's Apostles say they watched Madison's video interview so many times they wore out the tape; on that tape, Madison told Althea the story about Amina, an injured bird that her kids once nursed back to health. "I can't imagine that part of them dying," Madison said on the tape. "I'll do whatever it takes to keep it alive."

That was then, and this is now. That Madison is gone. "Alicia's not here. Nick's not here. None of what I said on that tape means anything," Madison tells the Apostles. Strand reminds her that it does mean something, and she needs to hear it. She almost killed a little girl! "To protect everyone else," Madison spits back, telling Victor she doesn't have a family left to disappoint. "I can get my hands dirty."

To that, Strand tells Madison why he gave Alicia the medallion: "I gave it to her so she'd remember who she was because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to. I thought I was protecting her, but I was wrong, Madison. It wasn't about protecting her. It was about giving myself an excuse not to be the better man. I don't want that to happen to you. I won't let that happen to you."

But someone has to stop Troy... and no one is going to get in her way. Not Strand, not Daniel, and not Troy Otto. "I can help you one way right now: by finishing what I started 10 years ago at the dam." Madison slams the MRAP door shut and drives off alone, ignoring Strand calling out after her: "This is not the way to end this."

The end is near: the two-part Fear the Walking Dead series finale airs November 19 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on X/Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

When he's not appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Christopher Nolan's latest pic, David Dastmalchian is working on breaking into the realm of comics. The actor's comics debut came in 2019 with Dark Horse's Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter, a story now in its third volume. As Dastmalchian tells us, this third volume is his most complex work yet.

"I feel so good. It is the most complex with the most character in the story happening right now," Dastmalchian tells us. "So the fear is that people might go, 'What's happening?!' As a writer, you have an obligation to making sure your audience is with you every step of the way, and I want it to be a really complex journey."

The actor-turned-writer then went on to say he was scared, even though his supporters had his back all the way throughout Volume 3's production process.

"I was scared because even though I deeply trust my editor and the people who helped me make it, and they were excited about it, I was like, the proof is in the pudding," Dastmalchian adds. "When people start reading it, are they going to scratch their heads? And so far it's been really good."

ComicBook.com's Charlie Ridgely gave the latest issue a glowing review, calling it some of Dastmalchian's best work yet.

"Count Crowley is just the best, am I right? Each installment of David Dastmalchian's monster hunting saga has bled soul straight off the page, and the start of Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter continues the trend," Ridgely said in his review earlier this month. "Crowley is a deeply lived-in character that never ceases to earn your attention and adoration. The supporting cast is as good as ever. And the narration is top-notch, as always. There are some classic Dark Horse monster shenanigans happening here, and for that we should all rejoice."

Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #2 is due out December 13th. The first issue of Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter, in addition to all four issues of the two series--Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter and Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter--are now available wherever comics are sold.

No one's gone until they're gone... and it seems Alicia Clark is gone. The midseason premiere of Fear the Walking Dead season 8 revealed that Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) is alive and that Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is dead, killed by Troy as revenge for Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) bludgeoning him with a hammer and leaving him to die back in season 3. Troy then handed over the skeletal remains of Alicia's severed arm, and claimed he took it off her corpse when he left her to roam as a walker. "Maybe one day you'll find her," Troy told Madison, "or maybe she'll find you, or maybe not, and finish the job."

The last time we saw Alicia in season 7, she was suffering from a fever after amputating her zombie-bitten arm. It seemed that Alicia didn't stop the infection in time, so she decided to spend whatever time she had left helping people trapped in the radioactive fallout off the coast of Galveston, Texas. First, Alicia saved her people and her old friend Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) when the Tower he lorded over as a tyrant went up in flames and was overrun by walkers. Then she entrusted him with making sure that everything they've been through meant something.

"You did make it mean something. You saved all of them. You saved me," Strand told Alicia. "You did what I asked you to do back at Lawton." In season 6, when Strand and Alicia were at the Lawton settlement controlled by Virginia (Colby Minifie), Strand handed down the Saint Christopher's medallion that a seemingly amnesiac Daniel Salazar (Rub?n Blades) gave him to help "bear heavy burdens." Strand then sent Alicia far away so he could get his hands dirty without dragging Alicia down with him.

Alicia later gave the medallion to Will (Gus Halper), who was present when Alicia was forced to amputate her arm after being bitten while searching for PADRE. She eventually took the medallion off a zombified Will's body when Strand threw her friend off the Tower roof, murdering him to keep Alicia away. The next time they met, it was as enemies: Alicia vowed to take Strand's Tower and turn it into PADRE, transmitting a message to bring stranded survivors to the safe haven... only to watch the Tower fall. Meanwhile, Morgan Jones (Lennie James) wound up at the real PADRE after crossing paths with Madison in Louisiana and informing her that her children were gone.

"I didn't just save you so you could live to do what I couldn't," Alicia told Strand. "I did it because I love you, too." It was the last time Strand saw Alicia alive. She gave her old friend a second chance, which he used to become the benevolent leader of the Emissary Suites Hotel after washing ashore in Georgia. Seven years later, Madison turned up at Strand's community, only for it to be taken over by Troy, who wants somewhere safe for his daughter Tracy (Antonella Rose). Strand relocated his family -- his husband, Frank (Isha Blaaker), and their son Klaus (Julian Grey) -- to the island, determined to help Madison build PADRE into what Alicia wanted it to be.

As it turned out, Troy tracked down Alicia and took his revenge on Madison by murdering her daughter. But whether Alicia is dead or alive is a question that will be answered in the two-episode Fear the Walking Dead series finale.

"Whether Troy is telling the truth [about Alicia's death] is something that you're just going to have to watch the rest of the season to find out," Ian Goldberg, who serves as showrunner with Andrew Chambliss, told ComicBook. Added Chambliss: "We will definitely find out whether or not Troy's story is true, and what actually went down between Troy and Alicia."

Madison's mission now is to find Alicia and lay her to rest with Nick. But first, she needs to save PADRE from Troy and build the island settlement into what it was supposed to be for her children. After all, no one's gone until they're gone.

Fear the Walking Dead's "Keeping Her Alive" episode premieres Sunday, November 12, on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

There are just three episodes left of Fear the Walking Dead. AMC has confirmed the run time of Sunday's "Keeping Her Alive," and the episode clocks in on the shorter side. However, the remaining two episodes will air back-to-back as a super-sized series finale: the double-header will span 140 minutes when it premieres November 19 on AMC. Picking up where last week's episode left off, "Keeping Her Alive" sees Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) attempt to use a captive Tracy Otto -- the daughter of Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) -- as leverage to save PADRE. But he's not the only one who has plans for the girl who may know what happened to Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey).

Below, read on to find out when and where to watch the final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead and how to catch up on the first seven seasons.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 10 Release Date

Fear the Walking Dead season 8 episode 10, "Keeping Her Alive," premieres Sunday, November 12, at 9/8c on AMC. The episode is available to stream now on AMC+.

What Time Is Fear the Walking Dead on AMC and AMC+?

New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead season 8 premiere Sundays at 3 a.m. ET / 12 a.m. PT on AMC+, and 9/8c p.m. on AMC.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 10 Runtime

"Keeping Her Alive" has a run time of 43 minutes and 30 seconds on AMC+. On AMC, the episode is scheduled to run from 9:00 p.m. -- 10:10 p.m.

How Many Episodes of Fear the Walking Dead Season 8?

The eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead consists of 12 episodes split into two six-episode blocks, and will conclude with the two-episode series finale on November 19.

How to Watch Fear the Walking Dead Online Without Cable

Cord-cutters can stream Fear the Walking Dead season 8 on AMC+. Prices start at $4.99/month for the new AMC+ with ads plan, while ad-free AMC+ is available for $6.99/month (when billed annually) or $8.99/month (when billed monthly). New customers can sign up for a 7-day free AMC Plus trial.

AMC+ is available as an app and via Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video Channels, The Roku Channel, Comcast Xfinity, Dish, DirecTV, Sling TV, and YouTube TV.

You can also watch Fear the Walking Dead for free on the AMC website by signing in with your television provider, or by downloading the episodes (priced $2.99 for HD, $1.99 for SD per episode) on retailers like Amazon Prime Video and Vudu.

Where Is Fear the Walking Dead Streaming?

All eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead are currently available to stream exclusively on AMC+. The first seven seasons left Hulu over the summer before eventually landing on Max for a limited time, but that deal expired on Halloween.

Fear the Walking Dead Episodes Guide: Season 8 Recaps

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 1 Recap: "Remember What They Took From You"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 2 Recap: "Blue Jay"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 3 Recap: "Odessa"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 4 Recap: "King County"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 5 Recap: "More Time Than You Know"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 6 Recap: "All I See Is Red"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 7 Recap: "Anton"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 8 Recap: "Iron Tiger"
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 9 Recap: "Sanctuary"

Fear the Walking Dead's final episodes premiere Sundays on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on X/Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Like most horror franchises, the Child's Play series has seen ups and downs since its inception, though thanks in large part to the Chucky TV series, the franchise is arguably hotter than ever, leading fans to wonder if any other former stars could return in the future. In the original 1988 Child's Play, Chris Sarandon played detective Mike Norris, one of the rare figures from the franchise who didn't succumb to Chucky's attacks, and while he opted not to return for Child's Play 2, the actor now says he's open to potentially reprising his role in the future. Season 3 of Chucky on SYFY recently concluded and a Season 4 has yet to officially be announced.

"[Original director] Tom [Holland] wasn't involved in the second one, so I just said, 'Thank you, but no thank you,'" Sarandon shared with PEOPLE about his decision to not return to the series. Of a future return, Sarandon confessed, "Yeah, sure ... It always depends on the circumstance. [But] I would think that, at this point, Mike Norris is retired."

Even if Holland didn't helm the second film, the long-running series has featured a surprising number of consistencies that haven't been seen in other horror franchises. All of the films in the series, as well as the TV show, have been written by Don Mancini, ensuring a tonal and narrative consistency not seen in other franchises, and Brad Dourif has voiced Chucky since the first movie, while even his daughter Fiona Dourif has become a key component of the universe. Additionally, David Kirschner has been a producer on those films. The only installment the trio wasn't involved in was the 2019 reboot, which largely capitalized more on the name of well-known property as opposed to attempting to honor long-time fans.

These most recent comments from Sarandon seem to confirm something of a change of heart for the actor, who was a bit more apprehensive about returning to the franchise back in 2019.

"When it comes to that, because there had been so many follow-ups to the original that had little or nothing to do with Tom's original conception, but used the characters, or at least some of the characters, there was no reason to do it. Nobody said anything to me about it, and if they had, I wouldn't have been interested," Sarandon shared with ComicBook.com.

Stay tuned for updates on the future of the Child's Play franchise.

Would you like to see Sarandon return? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Virtually every horror fan knows John Carpenter and is at least somewhat familiar with his contributions to genre cinema, but a key component in the success of many of his films was collaborator Debra Hill, who co-wrote both Halloween and Halloween II alongside Carpenter. In honor of Hill's numerous contributions to dozens of genre films over the years, the new documentary Hollywood Trailblazer: The Debra Hill Story is on the way from directors Jim McMorrow and Margaret McGoldrick, with Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis serving as one of the executive producers, per Deadline. Hill passed away in 2005 and her many credits include Escape from New York, Clue, The Dead Zone, and The Fog.

Interviews in the film include Jamie Lee Curtis, John Carpenter, Stacey Sher, David Gordon Green, Terry Gilliam, Lynda Obst, Kim Gottlieb-Walker, Andrea Berloff, Alan Jones, Kim Newman, and more. The filmmakers also worked closely with Debra's brother, Bob Hill, with Hollywood Trailblazer aiming to "shine a light on the prolific filmmaker, often dubbed 'the godmother of indie filmmaking,' who was responsible for giving many in Hollywood today their first break."

"The story of Debra Hill is a multi-faceted one. She was, and still is, an inspiration to filmmakers across the globe, and her legacy as a formidable, creative producer, mentor, trailblazer, and pioneer in cinema and environmental activism is an eternally relevant story," McMorrow shared of the project. "It is a privilege to bring this to the screen for all of us that she shaped through her life and work."

McGoldrick added. "Jim and I have been blown away by the response to telling Debra's story. Debra was an incredible filmmaker and storyteller who not only excelled at her job but did it with the love and respect of everyone around her. Her passion was infectious and when women weren't getting the chance to lead the charge, Debra was paving paths. She's an incredibly inspirational figure for anyone wanting to forge a career in the film industry and I'm very honored to be a part of the team getting to tell her story."

Carpenter and Hill were hired to develop the original Halloween, which was reportedly known as "The Babysitter Murders" early on in its development, with Curtis often citing Hill's script with the reason why the female characters felt so much more believable than teens in similar slashers. Back in 2002, Hill explained what she aimed to capture with the project.

"The idea was you couldn't kill evil," Hill shared with The Guardian. "We went back to the old idea of Samhain, that Halloween was the night when all the souls are let out to wreak havoc on the living, then came up with the story about the most evil kid who ever lived."

Stay tuned for details on Hollywood Trailblazer: The Debra Hill Story.

Are you looking forward to the project? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!