With Fear The Walking Dead concluded, questions about spinoffs have come up. One proposed idea would be the best way to fix a character death error.

Although Fear The Walking Dead has ended, one spinoff idea from the showrunners would’ve been the ideal way to correct a character’s devastating death. Unlike The Walking Dead‘s series finale, Fear gave audiences a neat, satisfying end. All the characters split off into groups and went on their separate ways. For example, June and Odessa confirmed they’d be heading back to John Dorie’s Texan cabin. This left room for audiences to imagine plausibly what would happen next for each character.

While the series finale suggested the potential for characters’ stories to continue, there’s been no confirmation of any spinoffs following Fear The Walking Dead‘s series ending. One tongue-in-cheek idea involved Daniel and Skidmark after their surprise reunion. More serious potential ideas could follow The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live‘s limited series approach, therefore avoiding the risk of over-saturating TWD universe unnecessarily. However, this would require a story that’s both worth telling and plausible.

Why A John Dorie Spinoff Would Be Good For Fear The Walking Dead

John Dorie was played by Garret Dillahunt in Fear The Walking Dead seasons 4 to 6. Although he died, turned, and got buried, John could still make another plausible appearance. One future Fear The Walking Dead character story teased by showrunners was a John Dorie spinoff. Showrunner Ian Goldberg said the following:

Oh, prequel series with John Dorie at Humbug’s Gulch and how he navigated the apocalypse before meeting June.

Humbug’s Gulch was the rodeo club where John used to work on weekends. While he mentioned some of the club’s activities, such as lasso hooping, seeing it pre-apocalypse would strengthen his character further. His story was intrinsically tied to June, so showcasing John in his cop days and how he got so comfortably set up in his cabin in the apocalypse is an untapped narrative goldmine. It could incorporate unique characters John might’ve met and obstacles he overcame to become self-sufficient.

John’s admittedly traumatic encounter where he shot a perpetrator dead could also be included as it led to his seclusion. Since he’s a fan-favorite character, inciting buzz around a prequel story arguably wouldn’t be challenging even if the story were set in the past. John Dorie’s prequel spinoff could be well-crafted by making it a limited series, therefore avoiding loose ends and poor pacing like Fear The Walking Dead experienced because of its seasons’ structures and large cast.

Fear The Walking Dead Killed Off John Dorie Way Too Early

John’s death was particularly heartbreaking because Morgan prevented his suicide only for Dakota to shoot John and leave him to bleed out. Moreover, to kill him off right when it seemed he might’ve fought and tried to help Dakota was devastating. Nevertheless, the decision for Dillahunt to leave Fear The Walking Dead was his own. He explains why in an EW interview:

I loved my time on this show and will always cherish it. I get a little antsy after a while, and I’m not a kid anymore, and I have some things I wanted to do.

Some of the “things” he mentioned could’ve been other projects he was cast in, like Army of the Dead and Where The Crawdads Sing, which came out in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Although Dillahunt was happy with John’s melancholy ending on the show, there was still potential for the character. For instance, since John mentioned his father was absent, a reunion with John Dorie Sr. would’ve been interesting. All in all, Fear The Walking Dead‘s proposed idea for a John Dorie spinoff has the opportunity to give him a kinder send-off in The Walking Dead universe.