Will Only One 'The Walking Dead' Episode 1 Character Survive Season 8?

The Walking Dead may have set the stage for only one character from its series premiere to survive beyond the eighth season.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead follow!

With Carl Grimes set to bow out when The Walking Dead returns for its eighth season, only two characters from the series premiere will remain: Rick Grimes and Morgan Jones. With the latter set to appear on Fear the Walking Dead for its fourth season, only Rick might survive the coming episodes.

With Fear the Walking Dead currently in production of its fourth season, Morgan actor Lennie James jetted from production of The Walking Dead's Season 8 finale to the Austin, Texas set of Fear the Walking Dead's Season 4 premiere. Should production of the two shows overlap, it would be extremely difficult to schedule James for both sets, constantly flying back and forth between Senoia, Georgia and the Lone Star State.

Production of Fear the Walking Dead began during the end of November, shortly after Thanksgiving. Should the sibling series produce the standard 16 episode season, it would likely require about 7 months to do so. Though The Walking Dead has not officially announced a renewal for Season 9, the AMC series will inevitably begin production on its next batch of episodes in late April of 2018. The end of Fear and beginning of Walking Dead could see a bit of production overlap, should they move at a standard pace.

With Morgan appearing on Fear the Walking Dead, the door isn't shut on the character's future, still. Whether or not he will ever return to The Walking Dead is unknown but according to Lennie James' exclusive interview with ComicBook.com, the Season 8 finale and episodes leading up to it will "springboard" his character to the crossover, indicating a continuation of his story rather than flashback to one of his absences from Rick's.

Whether Morgan is dead or alive, it looks as though Rick Grimes is set to be the only character from The Walking Dead's series premiere who will be a part of the flagship zombie drama beyond its eighth season.

The Walking Dead returns for the second half of its eighth season on February 25, 2018 on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.