After Lennie James helped make Morgan Jones one of the most popular characters in the Walking Dead universe, the time has come to say farewell. Going back to the very first episode of The Walking Dead, Morgan played a pivotal role in the story, as he and his son were the first survivors to be encountered by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) upon waking up in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. James would later return as Morgan in later seasons before moving over to the spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead, where he still serves as one of the primary players.
Time will tell if Morgan makes it to the end of Fear the Walking Dead alive, but in any case, fans should not expect to see the character again once the eighth and final season of the show is all wrapped up. Given how other Walking Dead characters have upcoming spinoffs, the door seems open for James to continue on as Morgan, whether that be through getting his own show or popping up in one of the others. But James himself is shutting that down, as he says he’s finished playing Morgan after wrapping Fear the Walking Dead. As the actor tells CBR in a new interview:
“This is it for me. He’s been around long enough. For me to pick up the stick again, it would have to be an amazing storyline. It would have to be a situation where I couldn’t look back on all the episodes that I’ve done so far and go, ‘No, I did that in episode such and such in season such and such.’ I’m not interested in repeating myself with Morgan at the moment. I think it would kind of slightly tarnish his legacy.”
Morgan’s story won’t be ending without the character going back to his roots in The Walking Dead. The season 8 trailer for Fear the Walking Dead revealed that Morgan heads back to King County, Georgia, where he’d met Rick at the start of the apocalypse. James teases that there’s a solid reason why Morgan returns to the place where he lost his son so many years ago.
“There’s a reason for us to be there. It’s not as straightforward as people might think. It is fundamental to who Morgan is at this particular moment, who he wants to be, and who he intends to be. I’m excited for the fans who know the relevance of the place. I’m excited for them to see those episodes.”
The Walking Dead Spinoffs Will Keep the Franchise Alive
Meanwhile, the franchise will be moving on with multiple spinoffs in the works. A limited series is currently filming that will reunite Rick Grimes and Michonne (Danai Gurira), providing some closure to those characters’ stories. Another series will send Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) to France where he’ll be facing all-new adversaries without his old friends by his side. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) will also separately headline their own Manhattan-set spinoff, The Walking Dead: Dead City.
The eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead will premiere on AMC and AMC+ on Sunday, May 14. You can watch a trailer for the new season below.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
