Fear the Walking Dead Postmortem: Lennie James Talks Final Season Premiere (Exclusive)

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead’s season 8 premiere, “Remember What They Took From You.”] In his time on The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, Morgan Jones (Lennie James) has been the pacifistic peaceful warrior and the walker-clearing killer who sees red. Since season 6 of the Walking Dead spin-off, Morgan has been theadoptive father of orphaned baby Mo, who Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) collected for the island settlement PADRE to end season 7. But with Fear the Walking Dead’s final season premiere picking up after a seven-year time jump, who is Morgan Jones years later? 

We got that answer in Sunday’s “Remember What They Took From You,” where it was revealed that Morgan spent the past seven years as a Collector for PADRE. It turns out that PADRE is both a place and a person, recruiting Collectors like Morgan and Madison to “rescue” children by separating parents from their offspring to build a better future 12 years post-outbreak. But Morgan, code name Nightingale, has his own rules, only taking kids who lost their parents or kids whose parents gave them up willingly for a better life.

After spending seven years locked in a cell because she helped Morgan and baby Mo get off the island, Madison learns that eight-year-old Mo — code name Wren (Zoey Merchant) — somehow ended up back at PADRE. Morgan explains that when he tried escaping the island with Mo seven years earlier, they became bogged down in the mud and were nearly killed when they were swarmed by walkers in the swamp. Morgan called PADRE and willingly gave up his daughter to save her, and she would never know that Morgan and Grace (Karen David) are her parents.

ComicBook spoke to James about Morgan’s post-time jump fate, bringing Fear‘s final season full circle to The Walking Dead, Morgan’s future in AMC’s TWD Universe, and all the other big developments from Sunday’s season premiere. 

COMICBOOK: Let’s get started with the reveal that Morgan spent the last seven years collecting children for PADRE. He has his rules, only rescuing orphans or kids whose parents give their kids up willingly. Why do you think Morgan hasn’t run away from there after all this time? Does he truly believe that kids are better off with PADRE?

LENNIE JAMES: He does not necessarily believe that kids are better off with them, but in the world where they find themselves now, they are at least an option that trains the kids for the world as it is at this particular moment in time. But I think the main reason why, to answer your question, the main reason why Morgan hasn’t run away is because even though he’s cut off from little Mo, he at least knows where she is and at least can get glimpses of her every now and then. And the decision that he made, he made for her. And he continues to do what he does for those small, fleeting moments when he gets to see her and maybe check in to make sure she’s doing okay.

When Morgan meets Madison in season 7, it’s Madison taking Mo to PADRE and Morgan trying to get her back. In season 8, it’s a reversal: Madison is trying to take Mo from PADRE and Morgan trying to take her back. Madison thinks she’s helping Morgan, and Morgan thinks he’s helping Mo. How would you describe the dynamic between Morgan and Madison this season?

LENNIE JAMES: I’m not sure I could describe it any better than you just did, to be absolutely honest. [Laughs] I think that it is the nature of choices that you are forced to make when you’re up against it in the way that our characters are up against it. That Madison’s act of rebellion, as it were, is to continue being a Collector, but help a child to escape. And Morgan’s act of rebellion is to be a Collector so that his child can stay at PADRE and he makes — however messed up and dark it is — ultimately makes a moral decision about how he collects so that he could [live with himself]. It’s the last attempt to be able to live with the choice that he made.

On that note, let’s talk about the scene where Morgan is ordered to execute Madison or Mo might not get back into PADRE. What do you think happens if Madison doesn’t disarm him there? Does Morgan go through with it and pull the trigger?

LENNIE JAMES: Do you know what? That’s a really good question. I would like… That’s a really good question. I know he’s glad Madison overpowers him but a part of me, I know at the time, you brought back a memory of it now. I know at the time I flipped his intentions two different ways. One of them made it possible for Madison to do what she does and another one where he was fully intended to choose little Mo over Madison. And I can’t remember which one of them actually made the final cut. But in trying to answer the question, as difficult as I’m finding it now, was pretty much a reflection of how difficult it was when we were filming.

On the houseboat, Mo finds the “you were supposed to” graffiti about [Morgan’s late son and wife] Duane and Jenny, which is what he says way back in the “Clear” episode of The Walking Dead when he suffered a mental break. It seems Morgan relapsed during the seven years since we last saw him. Where’s his head at now? Do you think he’s at risk of becoming that unhinged Morgan again?

LENNIE JAMES: I think he’s always at risk of becoming that unhinged Morgan again. It’s just a matter of what the triggers are. And I think that it seems that the trigger of doing what he’s been doing for the last six or seven years in order to protect little Mo has, at times, tipped him close to — if not deep into — what we’re calling unhinged Morgan. But when we meet him, I think… I described it as him being on the sober side of that experience, that he’s got the hangover and all of his energy is taken up just trying to do what he has to do. So he has to collect a certain number [of children], he has to make contact with PADRE, he wants to check in on little Mo, hopefully the possibility of seeing Grace. And so all he’s doing when we meet him in this post-unhinged state is just getting through the days and doing what he has to do.

The trailer for the season showed Morgan returning to King County, Georgia, and the house where he met Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead. We also see Morgan quoting what Rick said to him on your first episode of Fear: “You can hide, but you can’t run.” What can you tease about that full-circle moment Morgan has coming up?

LENNIE JAMES: Do you know what? I can’t tease too much. It would do a disservice to the fans to give any hint about why Morgan ends up there, how he ends up there, why he’s quoting Rick, and why he’s kind of re-quoting himself, really. All I can say — I mean, I wouldn’t say anything, but it’s in the trailer, so I have to address it [laughs]. But I won’t actually say anything other than something happens there.

What was it like revisiting The Walking Dead after that show’s series finale? Fear is ending, and you’ve been a big part of both shows. Did it feel like a homecoming of sorts looping back to that very first episode of The Walking Dead?

LENNIE JAMES: It did and it didn’t. Because the important thing of that journey back there in that particular episode, at that particular time — when I spoke to the showrunners, Andrew [Chambliss] and Ian [Goldberg], about the possibility of a return there, one of the things I said that was really important to me was it has to be relevant to the story we’re telling now. It can’t just be a throwback for the sake of a throwback. It can’t just be for a “whoop whoop” for the fans. It can’t just be for a shock moment or an “Oh my God” moment or something cool to put in the trailer. It has to be absolutely relevant to this period of time after the seven-year jump in the situation that Morgan is in, how does he and why does he end up back there? And if it’s a righteous reason, then it’s something I’m up for. So for me, even though I was back there, less of my focus was on the familiarity of it and much more of my focus was on why is it relevant for the story we’re telling today.  

Speaking of that seven-year time jump, Fear has always been a bit behind The Walking Dead in the timeline. And then suddenly, the premiere comes back from the opening credits and it’s seven years later. What was your reaction to the show jumping so far ahead?

LENNIE JAMES: If it didn’t make sense story wise, I couldn’t necessarily see the point of it, but Andrew and Ian made it make sense. And the focus that they wanted to put on little Mo and the journey that they wanted to go on and where they wanted to place all of the characters, the seven-year jump made sense.

The episode ends with Mo doing a one-eighty on PADRE and wanting to stay with Morgan and Grace over returning to the island. You have that great scene where things boil over and Morgan yells at Mo. What’s going through Morgan’s mind when he yells at her, “We’re not your parents?”

LENNIE JAMES: It’s a double-edged sword, that moment, because it’s what Morgan thinks he has to say. He doesn’t believe a word of it. It is much more a reflection of how he believes he’s not good enough for her, although he desperately wants to be her dad. It’s about how much he feels he’s not worthy of Grace, although he desperately wants to be her partner. He wants them to be together as a family. He doesn’t believe he’s capable of protecting them in a way that he wants to protect them because he’s been to the edge and he nearly went over it. And at the moment, he’s a little bit gun shy.

Scott M. Gimple wrote a lot of the big Morgan episodes on The Walking Dead, and now he’s back showrunning the Rick and Michonne spinoff. I know you couldn’t tell me if there were plans for Morgan to cross over to another Walking Dead show, but what would you say if Scott pitched you on a possible Morgan and Rick reunion over on that series?

LENNIE JAMES: No, I absolutely can. I have a ambition, which is to be on every single Walking Dead spinoff that there is going to be. I’m going to be on the one with Negan and Maggie [The Walking Dead: Dead City]. I’m going to be on the one with Norman in France [The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon]. I’m going to be on Rick & Michonne. They’re going to remount [World Beyond], and I’m going to be on that one as well. And any ones that come in the future. I have it written in my contract that I must at least make one guest appearance.

You’re joking, but I want to see that.

LENNIE JAMES: It’s my ambition. I’m going to try and make that real! 

Let’s end with a tease for the final season. What excites you most about these first six episodes of the final 12?

LENNIE JAMES: I would have to say the complicated, nuanced, tricky, funny, enjoyable, challenging, huge amount of fun that I had building the relationship between Madison and Morgan in those episodes.

New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead premiere Thursdays on AMC+ and Sundays on AMC. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.