Fear the Walking Dead Showrunners on Season 5 Finale Death: “Wait and See”

Fear the Walking Dead showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg hint the apparent major death that ended Season 5 might not be the end of the line for Morgan (Lennie James), saying fans will have to “wait and see.”

Pioneer leader Virginia (Colby Minifie) shooting a lone Morgan and leaving him to die “was something that we were really building to all season,” Chambliss told Insider. “You know, Morgan was at the forefront of pushing our group to really try to find a new way to live. And he did a lot of personal work on himself and pushed past a lot of the trauma.”

“And you know, on these shows, a lot of times when characters make a lot of personal growth they find ways that they end up having to pay for that,” Chambliss continued. “And even the final moments of the episode, Morgan is definitely paying the price for freely fighting for what he believes in.”

Though it appeared Morgan was shot near the heart, the showrunners confirm Morgan took a bullet to the shoulder.

“You know, listen, he was bleeding quite a bit from that wound. And, he also had walkers encroaching on him,” Goldberg said of the seven walkers seen closing in on Morgan before the finale cut to black. “So you know, whether it’s in the shoulder or the heart, it’s a bad gunshot wound and it’s not going to be one that he could easily survive.”

Though it appeared there was no way out for a wounded and defenseless Morgan to survive a severe bullet wound and a pack of walkers, audiences might yet get answers about Morgan’s fate — whether they come in Season 6 or somewhere else in TWD Universe.

“I think all we’ll say is that Morgan’s final message to everyone was telling them to just live and he meant that on, I think a more metaphorical level telling them to try to live their lives because there actually was some validity to what they were doing,” Chambliss said of Morgan’s walkie-talkie message aired to the freshly separated survivors. “But for Morgan, the question is whether or not he’s going to be able to take his own advice and literally live 30 seconds past when the camera cuts in that final shot. And that’s just something people are going to have to wait and see.”

Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC with its sixth season in 2020. The Walking Dead Season 10 premieres Sunday, Oct. 6 at 9/8c on AMC. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.