Lennie James Reacts to Kim Dickens’ Return on Fear the Walking Dead

Worlds will collide when Morgan Jones (Lennie James) meets Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) on Fear the Walking Dead. On a 2017 episode of Talking Dead, it was announced James would leave The Walking Dead for Fear in the first crossover between the two series. Morgan would bridge the mothership and the spinoff, crossing to Fear in its semi-rebooted fourth season under showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg. But Morgan and Madison would never meet: a flashback midway through Season 4 revealed Madison died saving her children, Nick (Frank Dillane) and Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey), her sacrifice happening before Morgan meets Madison’s surviving group.

In another reveal on Talking Dead this week, Dickens confirmed Madison is alive and will reappear in Fear Season 7B. Dickens will then return as a series regular for a renewed Season 8. 

“I said this to Kim: it’s a tick on my bucket list that I get to work with her,” James, who took over as the series lead in Season 4, said live on Talking Dead. “When I came over from The Walking Dead, we didn’t get a chance to work together. Part of the thing I was excited about when coming over was working with Kim. I get to do that now, so I’m a happy fellow.”

James previously opened up about his regrets that Dickens was written out just as he came over to Fear the Walking Dead. 

“I would love [her to come back], to be absolutely honest. I think everybody would,” James said in a 2019 interview. On theories that Madison survived, he said, “I’ve heard that fan theory, I can’t really comment on it, but one of the regrets I have is that I didn’t get to do any scenes with Kim before she left. So if she came back and I could do scenes with her that would be absolutely lovely.”

“Chances are that won’t happen,” James said at the time of a Morgan-Madison crossover. “The truth is she’s an actress that I greatly admire and would love to work with.”

Madison’s return comes amid Alicia and Morgan’s war against Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), who controls a thriving community spared from the fallout after Season 6 turned Texas into ground zero of the nuclear-zombie apocalypse. 

“I was able to tune into Season 7 and I just think it’s gone epic beyond epic. It’s incredible to watch,” Dickens said during a remote appearance on Talking Dead. “It’s visually stunning and the work that everyone is doing is so exciting and impressive. I watched it and said, ‘That looks like a show I’d really like to be on.’ It’s going to be fun to go back and work with all the new characters and find out what’s happened.”

Dickens added: “I’m a little nervous about that war between [Alicia and Strand].”

Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 returns with new episodes April 17 on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter and ComicBook’s @NewsOfTheDead for TWD Universe coverage all season long.