The Walking Dead: Lennie James Wants to Work With Andrew Lincoln Again

Lennie James is a fixture in the universe of The Walking Dead, with his character (Morgan Jones) being prominently featured in both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. Some of the most-loved episodes of the series featured Morgan interacting with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), and if James has his way, he will get one more chance to work with Lincoln again. Speaking with ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis at the finale celebration for The Walking Dead, James expressed interest in appearing in the upcoming spinoff featuring Rick and Michonne (Danai Gurira), which is expected to close out the story of the couple at the heart of the original series.

Morgan stepped in to help Rick early in the series, allowing the audience a glimpse into his desperate fight to keep his son safe during the zombie apocalypse. Living as a survivalist, Morgan cleared out an untold number of walkers, but never could pull the trigger when it came to his undead wife, Jenny. Later, audiences would learn that Morgan lost his son after he got too close to Jenny and was bitten.

“I would work with Andy any day of the week on any planet, anywhere in the universe,” James told ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis at the finale event. “I still speak to Andy, I saw him when I was last in London, we hung out for a minute. he’s a friend for life, and there’s a few friends for life on this job, which is why I’m so grateful for it.”

The finale of The Walking Dead featured an appearance by James in flashback, but the last time he was seen on screen was in the season 8 episode “Wrath,” where he left his armor behind and seemingly returned to a life of solitude in The Heaps. But if anyone was to assume that taking on a life of peace and solitude meant that Morgan was surrendering himself to his fate, they clearly haven’t been paying much attention. He was missing from the series and largely presumed dead for a while, and turned back up a changed man, and a more nuanced character than ever.

The finale drew more than 2 million viewers on Sunday — more than any episode since February 2021 — but those numbers still pale in comparison to the 10 million-plus who routinely watched the show in its heyday. AMC, who changed the plans from making a Rick Grimes theatrical movie into a prestige miniseries, is clearly hoping that a return to Rick and Michonne will help recapture some of the lightning in a bottle that made The Walking Dead a cultural phenomenon.