[This story contains spoilers for Sunday night’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead.]
After seven seasons on AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, original castmember Alycia Debnam-Carey has exited the series.
Debnam-Carey played Alicia Clark on the show, which debuted in 2015 as a prequel to The Walking Dead. On Sunday night’s show, her character was seen struggling after being bitten by a zombie. After successfully fighting off the fever that would spur her being turned in a zombie herself, Alicia decides to head off to help others.
Coincidentally, Debnam-Carey’s onscreen mother, played by Kim Dickens, was set to return in the back half of this season after departing the show in season four. The bulk of the show’s original series regular cast have departed over the years, alongside the original showrunner.
Debnam-Carey confirmed her departure, which comes in the wake of her joining the upcoming Hulu series Saint X, on Instagram, noting that Sunday’s episode “marks the end of an extraordinary and life changing journey of playing Alicia Clark.”
She added: “I was 21 when we began this crazy journey but now at 28, after 7 years and 100 episodes, I decided it was time for me to move on as an actor and as a person. As is the nature of our jobs I needed to seek out new challenges, new opportunities and carve out a new chapter for myself. I have been so lucky to be a part of something so awesome for so long but I hope you can understand and respect my choice to further expand and grow. I wouldn’t be here without you all and I am so grateful.”
The actress, who also made her directorial debut on an episode of the show this season, wrote that leaving the show was “bittersweet, but it is time.”
Read her full post below.
