In case you haven’t heard, there’s this little spinoff show of The Walking Dead. It’s pretty popular. OK, that’s an understatement. Fear the Walking Dead is such a big deal, in actuality, that it even managed to steal an original cast member of the main show. Pretty soon, new viewers of The Walking Dead might even be asking, who was Morgan on The Walking Dead?
Everyone who tuned in for Sunday night’s finale of season eight of the hit AMC show about the ins and outs of post-apocalyptic life in America saw Morgan leave the group we’ve come to know and love. Even though Morgan’s been in and out of the series over the years, it still feels like a major loss for the core series, even if the franchise isn’t losing him. So, what should you know about Morgan the character and the actor behind the man who’s been a peaceful presence for most of the show’s run?
So, who was Morgan on The Walking Dead? The actor…
Lennie James, the man who brings lift to the character on the small screen, has officially made the jump to Fear. (And, for the record, if you’re wondering who was Morgan on The Walking Dead as in the actor, that would be him.) He’s been booking regular acting work since the 1990s, but most American audiences will know him best for his role in The Walking Dead — though TWD fans might have also spotted him in 2017’s Blade Runner 2049.
It’s unclear whether Lennie James is saying goodbye to the main franchise of The Walking Dead for good. There’s certainly plenty of opportunity for more appearances, like flashbacks to the years Morgan was with Rick’s crew, but we’ll just have to wait to see if the writers of the show decide to give us that one.
Who was Morgan on The Walking Dead? The character…
We don’t blame you if you lost the story line somewhere along the way, since Morgan has been one of the most mysterious of the main characters to date. He first appears in the pilot of The Walking Dead — yes, that early! — when his son, Duane, finds Rick after he has escaped from the hospital and discovered that civilization as he knew it before his coma has ended. Morgan essentially holds Rick’s hand as he comes to understand this new post-apocalyptic world.
Morgan is also our first introduction to how families have been torn apart by the outbreak. Though Laurie and Carl are absent from the hospital when Rick comes to, it’s Morgan who agonizes over a decision that pops up throughout the seasons of the series: His wife has turned into a walker, and he cannot bring himself to put her down. (Ultimately, this backfires; it’s the walker form of his wife that eventually kills his son.)
We’re reintroduced to Morgan several seasons later when he’s gone, well, totally and completely insane. He has boobytrapped an entire town and clearly has a deathwish when Rick and Michonne catch up to him. They ultimately leave him to fend for himself, eaten up inside with guilt over the loss of his son.
But the Morgan you’re most familiar with is the one that reappears, again, several seasons later. We don’t get the backstory until much later, but he’s been coached back from the brink and taught a more peaceful way to survive in the (often) hopeless hellscape that is life after the apocalypse. So what will this Morgan bring to Fear The Walking Dead? Only time will tell, but the season that launched after the finale of The Walking Dead this past Sunday will be the first to feature him as recurring character — so we’ll soon find out.
