The Walking Dead Crossover: Lennie James Opens Up On Next Big Jump

The Walking Dead universe will continue to get smaller when Fear the Walking Dead returns on Sunday night. Following the first crossover between the two shows which brought Lennie James to Fear as his Morgan Jones character, Austin Amelio will follow such a lead and reprise his role as Dwight on the sibling series. The debut will come within the first four episodes. While thorough details have not yet been revealed, James has finally opened up about another Walking Dead actor joining him on Fear.

Fear the Walking Dead will mark the first time James and Amelio have scenes in which their characters speak despite overlapping on The Walking Dead for nearly three entire seasons. “We had been in scenes together but our characters had never spoken, which is very interesting,” James told DailyNews. “Myself and Austin got together and sat down and plotted out our mutual histories and what we might have known about each other. We never interacted.”

That shared history includes the All Out War story which pitted Morgan’s leader Rick against Dwight’s dictator Negan. “I think because of the battle with Negan and the role that Dwight played in that that, Morgan would have been privy to some of the subterfuge that was going on there,” James said. “We had been in maybe two scenes but they were huge battle scenes or crossing paths. We kept trying to find someplace where we nodded or shook hands or were in the same room together and there just wasn’t. So it was really exciting when that happened over here.”

As Morgan continues to emerge as a leader of Fear the Walking Dead, his relationship with Dwight could play a key role in defining his style. “We had to talk it through because some of the things we just had to take on assumption because we never actually saw them,” he adds. “Morgan might have been privy to the fact that Dwight was sent away. He might not have, so we have to make those decisions for ourselves.”

The stunt folks on Fear the Walking Dead better beware, though. James brought his iconic fighting stick from The Walking Dead over to Fear and he knows how to almost accidentally injure people with it. “Someone threw the staff to me and I picked it up and as I caught it in the air, I spin around and bring it around a stunt guy’s face,” James explained. “One time, I mistimed it and I hit the stunt man. Luckily, it was one of our softer sticks, but I caught him good. It’s not something I’m proud of and I apologized greatly.”

That same stunt performer also crossed over. “Then, we were doing another stunt on Fear and the stunt guy turned out to be the same guy,” James said. “He introduced himself by going, ‘I’m the guy you nearly knocked out with the staff.’”

The Walking Dead returns for its tenth season in October. Fear the Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9pm ET.