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Ever since the Walking Dead/Fear The Walking Dead crossover was announced at New York Comic-Con last month, the buzz and the speculation have been non-stop. Polls, theories, you name it on just about every fandom group on social media. The #1 contender since day 1 was Morales who had been MIA since season 1 of The Walking Dead — at least until he abruptly showed back up again in episode 8.03 as a member of the Saviors and then, was unceremoniously killed off less than 10 minutes later. So much for that theory! Well, the wait is over, and the crossover character was officially announced on tonight’s The Talking Dead.
Okay, here we go, everyone. Drum-roll please. And, the winner is …. Morgan!!!!!! Shitting your pants yet??!!! Don’t lie! I don’t think anyone could have seen this one coming.
Lennie James as Morgan Jones – The Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 16 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
I will have to say the writers really played the fans and got them good on this one. As some of you know Fear the Walking Dead is about to start filming its next season, and the show probably didn’t want to hide its guest star under a tarp for six months — not that it would be feasible anyways. The Walking Dead has already tried multiple times hiding character deaths and major storylines, but filming spoilers almost invariably torpedo any such effort. Most recently, this happened with the big “Lucille cliffhanger” at the end of season 6. Because it had been leaked that neither Steven Yeun nor Michael Cudlitz had been seen on set since the filming of the season 7 premiere, a great deal of the fandom connected the dots and concluded that Glenn and Abraham were the ones who met their demise at the end of Negan’s bat. So, learning from past mistakes, just coming out and unveiling Morgan as the crossover character outright ahead of time was probably the right move.
Now, the big question. If Lennie James is joining Fear, what does this mean for Morgan? We know about the jail cell that Morgan built, and there’s been plenty of indicators so far this season that Rick will ultimately spare Negan. Will Rick do so after Morgan is killed and out of respect for his fallen friend?
So, what does everyone else think? Is this the crossover character you had been hoping for? Or, do you think another one could have made a better story? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments section!
The Walking Dead airs on Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
