[This story contains spoilers from the Fear the Walking Dead midseason finale.] When Fear the Walking Dead returns for the second half of its eighth and final season, it will be without leading man Lennie James. After five seasons on the Walking Dead spin-off, the Morgan Jones actor has confirmed his exit from the series — and the Walking Dead Universe. Sunday’s “All I See Is Red” midseason finale ended a journey that started 13 years ago on the “Days Gone Bye” pilot episode of The Walking Dead in 2010, where Morgan and son Duane (Adrian Kali Turner) were the first survivors who encountered Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) in the zombie apocalypse.
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Morgan eventually crossed over to Fear the Walking Dead after running away from Rick and his people at Alexandria. And in the end, he left Fear to head home and look for Rick.
“This message is for Rick Grimes. It’s Morgan Jones. Man, I’m gonna come and look for you, whether you’re at Alexandria or not. I will leave this message every morning at dawn, and I’ll leave the walkie on for a few minutes after,” Morgan said, coming full circle to how he parted ways with Rick on the first ever episode of The Walking Dead. “Who knows? Maybe you might even be listening.”
James discussed his exit in a midseason finale postmortem with ComicBook, confirming that Morgan made his departure in “All I See Is Red.” Asked if fans will see Morgan in Fear the Walking Dead‘s final six episodes, James answered: “You will not.”
“I think it’s just the way the story panned out for the final season,” James explained about his mid-season exit. “I think it was to do with timings, when was best for the story [showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg] wanted to tell in the final season and in a way, to dedicate a chunk of the first six episodes to Morgan’s story and then continue as they mean to go on.”
The episode ended with a goodbye between Morgan and Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), now the leader of PADRE. Dickens will presumably receive top billing for the first time since season 4 when Fear the Walking Dead season 8 returns later this year with a focus on the show’s earlier surviving characters: Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), Daniel Salazar (Rubèn Blades), Luciana (Danay García) — and Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman), who made a shocking return in the episode’s final moments.
Is Morgan gone for good? While viewers won’t see Morgan and Mo’s (Zoey Merchant) return trip to Alexandria on Fear, Morgan’s fate is left open-ended. Just as James exits, Lincoln is returning opposite Danai Gurira in The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne spin-off series slated for 2024.
“In all honesty, every and anything is possible. And I know it’s something that a certain percentage of our fans would like. I would show up to work with Andy again any time,” James said about returning to the Walking Dead Universe for a Morgan and Rick reunion. “But as anybody who knows me knows, I’m fiercely protective of Morgan’s story. And as far as I’m concerned, at this particular moment in time, this is the end of the road for Morgan. You’ll only see him again if a story comes up within the universe that is just too good to say no to.”
Read our full postmortem Q&A with the man who brought Morgan to life on The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, Lennie James. Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 returns with its final episodes later in 2023 on AMC and AMC+.
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