'The Walking Dead' Star Says Rick Could Become The Next Governor

The Walking Dead star Lennie James, who plays the sometimes pacifistic and sometimes murderous Morgan, says Rick Grimes "absolutely" could become the next Governor.

"I think it's really fascinating and I think he absolutely could," James told Us Weekly when asked if the Alexandrian leader could head down the path followed by de facto Woodbury commander Philip Blake, better known as the eye patch-sporting Governor.

Tugging Rick away from that same destructive path "will be incumbent on Rick himself and the people around him, the people who love him," James said.

"Not just Michonne, but it's up to the people around him to make sure that doesn't happen," James said.

"Rick is at a crossroads and it is up to him whether or not he will keep going down the road that will lead him to a version of the Governor or whether he pulls himself back and remembers who he is and who he wants to be, and who he is for the group of people he's leading."

Rick and Morgan found themselves unusually connected once more following the abrupt death of Rick's teenaged son, Carl, who perished mid-season by way of gunshot to the head to prevent fully succumbing to a fatal walker bite.

Morgan's son, Duane, met an even worse fate: the boy was bitten by his zombified mother and later reanimated as a walker himself.

Both men lost their wives, then their sons, and the two allies found themselves aligned on a blood-thirsty path when the pair brutally slaughtered a pack of escaped Savior POWs.

It was a low point for an ashamed Rick Grimes, whose savage actions stood directly opposite what his dying son wished for him on his deathbed: to find a better path forward, one that didn't mean wiping out their enemies.

Rick turned to Carl for guidance by way of Carl's letter, penned for his father on his last day alive, and Rick may have walked away with a new worldview — even as a done-negotiating Negan gears up to lead Rick and his people directly into the line of fire in a trap meant to totally expunge the rebels.

The Governor, too, lost his child to the zombie apocalypse, turning the father into a villain who sought to claim the prison for himself and the people of his fortified Mayberry-esque community in seasons 3 and 4.

The Walking Dead's season 8 finale is not just a cap for this season, but will also close down every character's story.

"This has been a tumultuous season and there will be resolution and satisfaction but there will also be an eye on what was lost and on what there is left to gain and how the story's going to propel itself forward," James told Us.

"We think it's satisfying. We believe it is, but it's an ongoing story," James teased, adding: "Even when things end, they tend to kick off into something else beginning."

For James, that new beginning will be a journey west as he leaves Alexandria, Virginia behind in favor of Texas, where he'll find himself alongside a trio of new characters caught up in the tale of the Clark family in Fear The Walking Dead season 4.

The Walking Dead's extended season 8 finale airs Sunday, April 15 at 9/8c on AMC, immediately followed by Morgan's jump to Fear in its season 4 premiere.