Fear Star Lennie James Reveals His Biggest Regret About Leaving The Walking Dead

Fear the Walking Dead star Lennie James regrets exiting The Walking Dead before getting a chance to appear opposite Samantha Morton and Ryan Hurst, both Season 9 newcomers added under TWD showrunner Angela Kang.

"I think that Angela and everybody over there are doing a fantastic job," James told Digital Spy. "I mean, I'm a little behind at the moment just because of the workload. But I will do a binge quite soon and catch right up. I think they're doing a fantastic job."

James added he was "very keen" to see Morton's Whisperer leader Alpha and Hurst's second-in-command Beta join the show because "they're two actors I greatly admire and now regret I didn't hang around longer so I could have done some work with them."

Morgan exited TWD after the conclusion of the Survivor-Savior war that ended Season 8, leaving Virginia for Texas in the Fear Season 4 premiere.

Kang, who inherited her duties from five-season showrunner Scott Gimple, is "doing a fantastic job," James reiterated. The Morgan star pointed to the writer-producer having to manage the exit of Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes and, next, the exit of Danai Gurira's Michonne.

"I think she's come in and very much made it her show and the way that she wants to tell the story, and I think it's been great. And they've had to navigate some biggies, some real biggies in Rick moving on and the time jumps, and it's been deft the way she's handled it. It's been fantastic," James said. "I think it's a very strong show at the moment, and possibly also they've got other changes coming up. So I think she's navigating really well and I'm excited to see where it goes, because it's not going anywhere apart from forwards, so that's very exciting."

James now leads serves as lead on the spinoff, currently set roughly seven months before Rick's disappearance from Virginia. Following a time jump launched with Rick's presumed death, Fear is now more than six years behind present action on TWD.

There Daryl (Norman Reedus) and the recently reunited communities are caught in a cold war against the Whisperer army, who are at the center of a propaganda campaign following the Whisperers' vicious slaughter of a lineup of victims that included Morgan's once protégé Henry (Macsen and Matt Lintz).

New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead premiere Sundays at 9/8c on AMC. TWD returns with its Season 10 premiere Sunday, October 6. Follow the author @cameronbonomolo on Twitter.