Yesterday brought the announcement that Austin Amelio is the latest Walking Dead cast member to crossover to sister show Fear the Walking Dead. The actor played redeemed Savior Dwight on seasons 6-8 of TWD before being absent from the first half of season 9, and now we know it’s because he’s switched over to become a new regular on the spinoff, joining Lennie James who crossed over as Morgan Jones last year.
The news has certainly got fans talking and many are naturally excited for what’s only the second major crossover between the two shows set in the same universe. Plus, Dwight’s a character with so much more potential to be explored and people are thrilled that we haven’t seen the last of him.
https://twitter.com/ZainapMcReedus/status/1080949781017567237?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1080949781017567237%7Ctwgr%5E363937393b70726f64756374696f6e&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fthewalkingdead%2F2019%2F01%2F04%2Fthe-walking-dead-dwight-fear-the-walking-dead-austin-amelio-reactions%2F
https://twitter.com/carrieWUTWUT/status/1080978972916310016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Fantastic news. I wondered what happened to Dwight. Austin Amelio was awesome. Another great addition to @FearTWD. With this and The Whisperers arc on the main show, it could be a good year for @WalkingDead_AMC.#FearTWD #TheWalkingDead #TWD #TWDFamily https://t.co/65HJbfyc77
— Gav (@GavinUK86) January 3, 2019
On the other hand, some folks were a bit more conflicted, feeling that either Dwight would’ve been better served by remaining on The Walking Dead or that Fear‘s own storytelling is being compromised by bringing characters over from the parent series.
I would rather dwight was still on #thewalkingdead tho
— G Rhee 🍕㋨ ➐ (@ProtectorGlenn) January 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/MARVELspank/status/1080950335789809665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1080950335789809665%7Ctwgr%5E363937393b70726f64756374696f6e&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fthewalkingdead%2F2019%2F01%2F04%2Fthe-walking-dead-dwight-fear-the-walking-dead-austin-amelio-reactions%2F
https://twitter.com/moll244/status/1080932234528477185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1080932234528477185%7Ctwgr%5E363937393b70726f64756374696f6e&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fthewalkingdead%2F2019%2F01%2F04%2Fthe-walking-dead-dwight-fear-the-walking-dead-austin-amelio-reactions%2F
There are also those that are 100% against the casting announcement, believing that Fear shouldn’t have changed up its cast in past seasons so much and should still be about its original characters, not ones who’ve crossed over.
dwights joining fear the walking dead?? why
we were robbed of abe on fear
they gave us morgan and killed off the 2 strongest fear characters
and now we get. dwight.— ♡ MR. TO YOU ♡ (@wwiitchcraft) January 3, 2019
Fear The Walking Dead #FearTWD is becoming #TWD The Walking Dead’s trash can for their least interesting characters… First Morgan and now Dwight smh
They ruined the show by killing Alicia’s family and replacing them with shitty TWD characters. I’m only watching bc of Alycia pic.twitter.com/gScS1Dmbcg— barbara 🔮 (@lmj_black2pink) January 3, 2019
The last time we saw Dwight on our screens was in TWD‘s season 8 finale, when he was banished from Alexandria by Daryl and warned never to come back. Clearly, he’s a man of his word, as he must’ve traveled to Texas after this (Austin Amelio’s own homeland), thereby coming into contact with the Fear crew.
As Dwight left the show before the events of season 9, he’s one of the few remaining characters who can still crossover to Fear, as things just got more complicated with TWD‘s seven-year time jump. Speaking of which, we’ll see how that continues to unfold when The Walking Dead returns to AMC on February 10th.
