The Walking Dead's first zombie apocalypse bromance was Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Morgan Jones (Lennie James). They lost touch after Morgan saved Rick's life in the pilot episode, but Rick tried to keep updating Morgan through a walkie-talkie. Morgan briefly returned to the story in Season 3, then returned in a more stable mental condition through Season 5 cameos. Those cameos showed Morgan is pretty amazing at tracking Rick through the apocalypse -- following the Grimes family from Atlanta, Georgia to Alexandria, Virginia.
So when a fan at 2019 SDCC's Fear the Walking Dead panel asked Lennie James what Morgan would do if he knew The Walking Dead's Rick Grimes was actually missing right now, James knew just what his character would do:
Oooh. I think he would go looking to prove it either one way or the other. I think he would walk back across the country, I think he'd walk back and forward. It would become his new mission. He would have to find him. I think one of the things about Morgan is he still defines himself by that man and that friendship and the fact that those two men know each other in a way that they don't allow anybody else to know them. So it would be very fundamental to him.
Lennie James' Morgan was a main character through The Walking Dead Season 6-8, but left at the end of Season 8. He traveled west and joined the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead. So Morgan wasn't around for the Walking Dead Season 9 events that led to Rick's disappearance. Rick is presumed dead, but the audience knows he's still alive -- and Andrew Lincoln will be getting his own TV movies on AMC continuing Rick's story.
I agree that Morgan would go out looking for Rick. But that's also what Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) tried to do. Would Morgan have better luck than Daryl and Michonne? Morgan has talked about returning to Alexandria, but that hasn't happened yet on Fear the Walking Dead -- and now The Walking Dead has time-jumped six years forward from Rick's disappearance.
I was disappointed by Morgan's role on The Walking Dead, once he reunited with Rick in Alexandria. I wanted them to be a team again, but the show was more interested in having them clash over different kill philosophies, and then had them spend more time with other characters.
Last year, Lennie James opened up on how Rick's exit could impact Morgan. That was after we knew Andrew Lincoln would be leaving The Walking Dead but before we knew that Rick wouldn't actually die. James said the connection between Rick and Morgan will last for life between those two men, however long that life is.
Now Morgan is a series regular character on Fear the Walking Dead. He joined the cast in Season 4 and remains there through the current Season 5, which also recently added fellow TWD alum Austin Amelio as Dwight. The Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 midseason finale, "Is Anybody Out There?" airs this Sunday, July 21 with Fear then taking a mini break and returning on August 11. The Walking Dead Season 10 premieres Sunday, October 6 on AMC.
