Being a cast member on The Walking Dead obviously has its perks, but there’s also the fact that sooner or later the zombie apocalypse tends to murder everyone. That’s led to stars like Lenny James (who plays Morgan) getting nervous every time they’re asked to sit down with showrunner Scott Gimple, because those trips usually end with being told their character has been killed off.
But in this recent case, James wasn’t being killed off … he was being offered a chance to cross over to The Walking Dead sister show Fear The Walking Dead.
“[Gimple] talked about his new role of overseeing both shows and then he said ‘How would you like to continue the story of Morgan in Fear the Walking Dead?'” James told Digital Spy. “We just started talking about it over the next couple of weeks and months as there was a lot to take on board. It wasn’t a case of ‘This is going to happen,’ it was genuinely a case of what I thought about it. There was absolutely a choice.”
“It also wasn’t a case of it being if it wasn’t me or it wasn’t Morgan then it would be somebody else, they were very much saying, ‘We were thinking about doing this thing and if you’re really not up for it, then we’ll go a completely different direction.'”
James obviously made the decision to go ahead with the big crossover angle, something AMC revealed months ago once the actor started appearing on set. It’s probably a good move for him and his character. Morgan has gone back and forth from pacifist to psychopath a few too many times on The Walking Dead. Some new scenery and a chance to branch out in other directions may keep him safe from walker bites or bullets for a few more seasons.
