'The Walking Dead's Morgan Getting A Bigger Role on 'Fear'

When The Walking Dead's Morgan moves over to Fear The Walking Dead tomorrow night, it will be with [...]

When The Walking Dead's Morgan moves over to Fear The Walking Dead tomorrow night, it will be with a bigger role to play — and a return to a familiar mindset for the stick-wielding survivor.

The flagship series boasts an expansive cast dwarfing that of its spinoff counterpart, but Morgan's jump to the significantly less-crowded Fear allows the character more breathing room:

"My first reaction [to switching shows] was the idea of exploring a slightly different pace the way we can possibly explore Morgan here that we couldn't necessarily on The Walking Dead because it's such a big cast," actor Lennie James told Entertainment Weekly. "So your story arc happens over a bigger arc, as it were, and that might be different here."

"But I also had to deal with the notion that if I said yes, it meant I was leaving The Walking Dead," James continued, "and that was as much as of a surreal thought pattern as coming here and kind of being the same guy but in a very different environment."

As Morgan leaves Virginia behind in favor of Texas, his change in scenery comes a change in mindset.

Morgan has been particularly blood-thirsty during the war between his people and Negan's Saviors — a brutality he'll display again in The Walking Dead's season 8 finale — but Fear will revert Morgan to someone who kills less indiscriminately.

"I think you're going to see a kind of a Morgan that is going to be challenged in a new environment to almost build a world, or try to build a world based on his principle that all life is precious," James said, "and of discovering who he is, who he can be, who he can make himself into, how other people are going to kind of affect him and force him possibly into a position that he never saw himself taking up and how he chooses to be influenced by and influence other people."

Morgan's new adventure "all falls under what we're doing thematically and emotionally this season, which is taking people who are in places of isolation and it's about merging them with others and creating a bigger community," said executive producer and co-showrunner Andrew Chambliss in a new characters featurette released by AMC.

The character is the focus of the Fear The Walking Dead season 4 premiere as Morgan makes his way west after leaving Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and company behind.

This newest season will also introduce series newcomers Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman, and Maggie Grace, alongside returning stars Kim Dickens, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Frank Dillane, Danay Garcia and Colman Domingo.

The Walking Dead airs its extended season 8 finale at 9/8c on AMC Sunday, immediately followed by Fear's season 4 premiere.

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