Victor Strand has a new outlook — and a new look — in Season 7 of Fear the Walking Dead. Season 6 ended with the cunning conman hinting at a villainous turn as a survivor of the nuclear zombie apocalypse when he hunkered down with historian Howard (Omid Abtahi), the curator of a makeshift museum now preserving history through his collection of treasures. It’s there that Strand will once again enjoy the finer things in life — art, books, music, and good bourbon — as he rebuilds this corner of the zombie apocalypse that Teddy’s (John Glover) warheads turned into a near-uninhabitable nuclear wasteland.
“We made a decision towards the end of Season 6 to grow his beard back because I think he trimmed up in the middle of Season 6 … or even late [Season] 5, because he was becoming a bit more open, you were able to see his face. Now Victor does not want you to see his face,” Domingo said of Strand’s scruffy Season 6 look on Talking Dead. “He wants to be a bit more hidden, with all the hair and stuff growing out to cover up a bit. We’re also investigating with Season 7 for him to have a bit more finesse and polish because that’s going to be the ultimate version of Victor.”
This Ultimate Victor might be the ultimate villain for Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey), who Teddy locked away in a bunker to rebuild the world he hoped to destroy. On Talking Dead, Debnam-Carey said that Strand’s attempted sacrifice of Morgan Jones (Lennie James) aboard a walker-filled submarine “speaks to how destructive Victor Strand has become and that maybe this world has finally turned him into a worse person than she thought he could be.”
Showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg teased Season 7 will have a new look when this second apocalypse brings out another element of human adversary wearing gas masks and “really cool-designed garb accouterment to this new reality.”
In Season 7, Domingo said, “I hope that Strand has found a really good wardrobe, and I think that he has. Strand is always very concerned about outward appearances, and I think that this new version of Strand, he’s going to say, ‘Meet me here.’ That’s what I’m looking forward to, and great storytelling.”
Fear the Walking Dead returns with new episodes later this year on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things The Walking Dead Universe.