Colman Domingo reacts to Strand's “Fear the Walking Dead” finale end

The actor also weighs in on what happens to Victor after the cameras shut off.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the Fear the Walking Dead series finale.

When Colman Domingo first showed up late in season 1 of Fear the Walking Dead, he didn’t appear to be a guy that would be around for long. For one thing, he was on a show about flesh-eating zombies, which tends to impact the life expectancy of any actor's character. He also wasn’t part of the main season 1 cast who were promoted in a frenzy of marketing and press materials.

But Domingo’s morally ambiguous Victor Strand — first seen sharing a cell with Frank Dillane’s Nick —immediately became one of the most intriguing characters on the spinoff, turning his season 1 appearance into an eight-year run that finally concluded with Sunday’s Fear the Walking Dead series finale.

He actually turned it into even more that. Already a respected playwright and stage actor, Domingo’s on-screen career catapulted into the stratosphere after showing up on Fear, as he starred alongside Oscar winner Regina King in If Beale Street Could Talk as well as with Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, just to name a few of his high-profile projects.

And 2023 is Domingo’s biggest year yet. He is generating Oscar buzz for not one but two roles — playing the lead of activist Bayard Rustin in the just released Netflix biofilm Rustin, as well as the antagonist Albert in the upcoming The Color Purple. It’s a rise that may be surprising to some, but not to those who have worked with the actor. “Colman came onto Fear in that first season, he'd never really done television as a regular,” says his costar and good friend Kim Dickens. “And look at him now! This started things for him. It helped build him as a performer and put him out there so people could see what he could do.”

So how does it feel for the actor to see the role that put him on the map finally end with Sunday’s series finale? “It feels great,” Domingo tells EW. “I never thought that I would last and be the longest running, consistent cast member with the most episodes. I never thought that was going to happen. I really thought that I’d be on for two or three seasons and was sure they'd kill my character, because it just makes sense. Victor Strand has a totally awkward moral compass, and I thought, ‘Oh, well, obviously he'll get into trouble and be off at some point.’ But that never happened. So it feels great!”

Not only did Strand make it through the entire series alive, but the character actually did something even more surprising at the end — embracing the good within himself and finding a family with his husband Frank and son Klaus. The final scene shows Victor seeing his former family of Madison and Alicia in the literal rear-view mirror, and then driving off in a truck with his new one to a destination unknown.

“I'm really happy the way that Strand has met his ending, because I wanted a good redemption story for him,” the star says. “That was a great, interesting journey for him, especially after being such a villainous person in season 7. I thought, ‘Well, where do you go from there? You either kill him off or he learns how to use all his superpowers of manipulation and twisting of the truths and being a con artist and being a brilliant, interesting character and you really let him see how he can do all that stuff for good.”

Of course, while Victor has been in a good place before, he doesn’t usually stay there (witness his ruthless running of the Tower in season 7). Will Victor actually stay on the straight and narrow, even if cameras are not there to follow his journey? Domingo ponders the question: “You know what? I think so. Because he has his people to live for. I think Strand has always wanted love — going all the way back to season 1 — whether people recognize it or not. And now he has it.”

And while Victor Strand’s Walking Dead journey may now be complete — the actor says he would consider another run in the franchise if he is able to shape and mold the project himself — Domingo is likely to be receiving heaping helpings of love himself come awards season.

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.