Why Morgan May or May Not Return to 'The Walking Dead'

Being drawn to one another since the earliest days of The Walking Dead's apocalypse, there is one [...]

Being drawn to one another since the earliest days of The Walking Dead's apocalypse, there is one thing which keeps Morgan Jones particularly close to Rick Grimes: Duane.

Duane, Morgan's son, was alive and well during Rick's first day outside of the hospital in Atlanta. Since that time, Morgan's son has passed away (off-screen, leaving the door open for a chilling return), making Rick Grimes the only survivor besides Morgan to have known him.

"Apart from Morgan, Rick is the only other person alive that Morgan knows who remembers Duane and has any connection to Duane and I think that's part of their connection to each other," Morgan actor Lennie James told ComicBook.com. "I think it's fundamental to who he is and has been driving his particular narrative right from the beginning and continues to do so even now."

In fact, those moments in those early days are the heaviest influences on Morgan's journey of survival. "I think a large chunk of it," James said. "I think one of the things that Morgan's had to deal with over the years of now of this story, this journey, that he's been on is trying to figure out who he is once he is no longer Jenny's husband and Duane's dad and that's been at the core of his battle because that's how he defined himself. Outside of the job that he probably did, how he described himself was in relation to who me married and who his child was. I think that's been a massive part of Morgan's journey."

Still, the unbreakable bond between Rick and Morgan won't be enough to stop the characters from splitting after The Walking Dead's eighth season, as the latter will head out of town for a crossover with Fear the Walking Dead. Whether or not he will ever report back to Rick with his findings -- a whole entire new group of survivors -- is unknown.

"I don't know that that might not be an option," James said. "Obviously it's something that he may well in the future consider. I think that he would have to get over the barrier of whether or not that is a backwards step or a forward step and he would have to have a certain degree of trust in the people that he would be bringing back to Virginia. He wouldn't want to be bringing trouble to Virginia on his return. If he was to return to Virginia it would have to be that he felt that he was bringing people who could add to the community, not people who could threaten or take away from the community and that's going to take some time to figure out."

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. Fear the Walking Dead will debut its fourth season after The Walking Dead concludes its eighth, at 10 pm ET on April 15. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.

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