The Walking Dead

‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Fans React to Morgan as New Series Lead

Fear The Walking Dead looks to become more of an extension of The Walking Dead as Lennie James’ […]

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Fear The Walking Dead looks to become more of an extension of The Walking Dead as Lennie James‘ Morgan will step up as new series lead in the wake of the mid-season finale death of Kim Dickens‘ Madison.

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As first reported by ComicBook.com, an official AMC press release now gives The Walking Dead veteran Lennie James top billing on the spinoff, succeeding Dickens as first billed.

After the loss of Fear veterans Kim Dickens and Frank Dillane (Nick), the series now stars “Lennie James, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia, Garret Dillahunt, Maggie Grace and Jenna Elfman.” James formerly received the “and” credit.

As the last surviving member of the now wiped-out Clark-Manawa pack, Alycia Debnam Carey’s Alicia Clark seemed poised to assume her mother’s mantle as the lead of the show, which has long focused on the tight-knit Clark clan since its first episode.

The plan for Fear co-creator and original showrunner Dave Erickson was to transform Madison into the spinoff’s version of the Governor (David Morrissey) or Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), taking the mom from hero to antihero, and then ultimately “bleed that into full-on villain,” Erickson told THR.

Erickson exited the series last March after having signed a new development deal with AMC and was replaced by new season 4 showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, who worked closely with new season 4 executive producer Scott Gimple to develop the story for season 4 — taking a direction that meant killing off Madison and using her death as the driving force for this first half-season.

Gimple — a five-season showrunner on The Walking Dead until his promotion to overseer of the entire Walking Dead brand for AMC — came up with the idea to cross Morgan over from the flagship series to Fear, a move actor Lennie James acknowledged would not have happened without James’ consent as Morgan was the only choice for the crossover.

“They were very much saying, ‘We were thinking about doing this thing and if you’re really not up for it, then we’ll go a completely different direction,’” James said. “It wasn’t a case of, ‘This is going to happen,’ it was genuinely a case of what I thought about it, there was absolutely a choice.”

“At the beginning of every season you have to sit down with Scott Gimple and he tells you what the arc of this season is going to be and what your character’s arc is going to be,” James told Digital Spy ahead of the crossover event in April.

Gimple, James recalled, “talked about his new role of overseeing both shows and then he said, ‘How would you like to continue the story of Morgan in Fear the Walking Dead?’”

After weeks of deliberation, James chose to leap from The Walking Dead over to Fear.

In a recorded appearance aired on live aftershow Talking Dead following Madison’s death episode, James expressed his disappointment in not getting to work with Fear‘s leading lady, as did series newcomer Garret Dillahunt (John Dorie), who previously starred alongside good friend Dickens in HBO’s Deadwood.

Reactions to Madison’s ousting as lead have been largely mixed-to-negative: Fear is now fielding accusations of sexism and ageism for displacing its 52-year-old female lead with a man, and a large subset of fans are particularly upset after learning actress Alycia Debnam-Carey will receive just second billing despite her three-year tenure with the show.

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