A Walking Dead character will crossover to Fear The Walking Dead: will you watch?

fear-the-walking-dead-season-4-lennie-james-colman-domingo-1200x707
Spoilers for past episodes of Walking Dead follow
I stopped watching The Walking Dead midway through last season, although I caught the finale. I tried to get through the first episode this season and got confused by the timeline switches and gave up. Just when I was starting to get it, I decided it was too much work without enough payoff. That’s pretty much how I felt about Fear The Walking Dead too, although I lasted through almost all three seasons. While I like the characters and care somewhat about them, I couldn’t get through the exhaustive two part finale and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. (There are just too many other shows to watch on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. If if wasn’t for this job I would have cut the cord long ago.)

That’s no shade to those of you who are still watching those shows. I get it, I really love post-apocalyptic survival shows and I thought Fear The Walking Dead in particular was under appreciated.

My favorite actor on The Walking Dead is probably seasoned British character actor Lennie James. He was also a bright spot in an otherwise too slow Blade Runner 2049. (They could have easily cut 45 minutes from that movie, but I digress.) James’s character arc as Morgan on TWD seemed hackneyed at times, but he was always highly watchable on screen. That’s why it was a wise decision to chose James to crossover to Fear The Walking Dead, which of course takes place at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, much earlier than TWD. Morgan’s surprise appearance in season three, when he reunites with Rick while holed up and suffering a psychotic break, was some of the most impressive acting I’ve seen on the show. James appeared in season one, as a guest on season three during the time his character went crazy, and then joined the show as a more permanent cast member in season five, which started airing in 2015.

He’s now set to appear on Fear The Walking Dead, although it’s unclear when his character will show up. Production is starting now, and producers made this announcement to get ahead of potential leaks from the set.

The long awaited crossover between The Walking Dead and spinoff Fear The Walking Dead will see Lennie James’ Morgan Jones character bridging the stories between the two series and moving to the latter.

This doesn’t mean that the Morgan character will be leaving TWD, even as James prepares to start filming on FearTWD tomorrow morning in Austin, Texas – at least not right away. “Even though Morgan is going to be featured on Fear, he has a lot of story left on The Walking Dead,” said showrunner Scott M. Gimple in a statement read out on Talking Dead on Sunday. “Morgan’s arch on The Walking Dead Season 8 positioned him for the story on Fear,” the EP added. “It was also important to see Fear‘s world and characters through new yet familiar eyes.”

James’ first day on the FearTWD set will be partially live streamed online it was also announced tonight.

The revelation of James’ eventual exit from the mother show came tonight on AMC’s post-TWD chat show, the durable Talking Dead with TWD‘s Melissa McBride, new cast member Avi Nash and indefatigable director and Comic Book Men co-star Kevin Smith on the guest couch. Revving up the ratings hopes as well as the hype machine that has been going since executive producer Robert Kirkman first made the crossover official in October at New York Comic-Con.

[From Deadline]

There are all sorts of theories about other potential crossovers, particularly for beloved characters from TWD who have been killed off but would still be alive during FTWD’s timeline, like Glenn and Abraham. Morgan is an inspired choice because I’d love to see the timeline between when he lost his son and went mad. Or will his teenage son still be alive during that time and will we see him get bitten by his own zombie mother? That would be harrowing. We already got a significant slice of Morgan’s backstory in that capsule episode where he was taught pacifism and martial arts. That was a snooze and a misdirection. Whatever they do with Morgan on FTWD they need to keep the main plot moving and not tease viewers with cliffhangers. TWD showrunners love to do that. Incidentally Scott Gimple of TWD is about to become a producer on FTWD.

Here’s a link to Lennie James’s live interview on Talking Dead about his crossover. He said “It’s me, I am joining the cast of Fear of the Walking Dead.” He sounds so posh in his British accent! He said he just finished shooting TWD in Atlanta last week and was set to start shooting FTWD the next day. The hardest part about it for him is “leaving The Walking Dead, leaving that cast, leaving that crew. I’ve said my goodbyes.” He also thanked the crew and called them “an amazing bunch of people.” Melissa McBride, who plays Carol, was on the couch as Lennie was interviewed via satellite and she got choked up. You could see tears in Lennie’s eyes too, which was sweet. He then thanked the fans and credited them for his crossover. He’s an incredible actor and person and I might just tune in to FTWD for him.

fear-the-walking-dead-season-4-lennie-james-1200x707

lenniejamesheader

the-walking-dead-episode-807-morgan-james-935

Photos courtesy of AMC

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

20 Responses to “A Walking Dead character will crossover to Fear The Walking Dead: will you watch?”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Dhavynia says:

    It’s a good choice because he’s such a strong presence in TWD that it will make you watch FOTWD
    Having said that, I don’t watch Fear because as much as i love TWD, it drains me to the point that I can’t seem to put more energy on a similar show

  2. Sixer says:

    I love Lennie James and will watch anything, absolutely anything, he appears in. That is all!

    • Trillion says:

      Have you seen the series he was in about 10 or so years ago, Jericho? Another post-apocalyptic America setting. I binged watched it while I was in labor. Good times.

    • ALF-M says:

      I liked the first for seasons, but have been hate watching TWD since season up until
      This present season. I hate watched FOTWD’s first season and just couldn’t continue, because like what most people say watching the original TWD drains you out enough. I love Lennie James. He’s been around a long time both in the UK and here in the US. He’s my favorite character on the show. I used to love Daryl aka Norman Reedus, but when Lennie came back with a larger role as Morgan, he was just awesome. The timeline doesn’t make sense for him to be the character on FOTHWD. If anyone, I thought Abraham would have been the character for the cross over before he ended up with his crew and ended up at the Jail taking Glenn and Tara in Aftermath of the war with The Governor. I am pissed The producers are taking Lennie away, but the show should have ended already and they should have killed off more major characters by now on TWD.

  3. V4Real says:

    I only started watching when Negan showed up but I knew the plot from the comics. I haven’t started with the new season yet because I’m waiting to binge watch. I can’t stand this wait until next week anymore.

    I like Lenny but he can’t get me to watch Fear The Walking Dead. That show is a waste to me since we still will never know how the virus started. In my mind I just crossed over TWD with Resident Evil and blamed it on the T-virus. TWD is just showing us how other people in the world lived. 🙂

  4. Louise177 says:

    I hate watch TWD. There’s some really good episodes but I wish it would end. The disappointing thing is show runners said they want it on air for years more.

  5. launicaangelina says:

    I watch both shows but it’s becoming a chore. I am not a fan of Morgan being the crossover character – Lennie James is great – but I think it’ll be a stretch to make it work. In my opinion, Abraham would have been more believable and fun!

  6. Pandy says:

    Still watching both series. I have to say, Morgan is not a fave character … he’s dangerous. Will be interesting to see him in Fear.

  7. klc says:

    What has happened to TWD? I have watched for years but it is so boring lately. I have a hard time making it through an episode.

  8. Sparkly says:

    I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with TWD. I love the story but often hate how they handle it. So I’m not yet sure if I’ll like this crossover or not. I’ll watch it, but I’ll reserve judgement until then.

    Gimple said Morgan’s not done on TWD, but Lennie James sure sounded like he’d said some final goodbyes when he was on Talking Dead.

  9. chloe says:

    I’m just trying to figure out how they are getting a character from Georgia all the way to California/Mexico, especially since Morgan had popped up various times during the previous seasons in Georgia, the only thing I can figure is the Fear crew make a long voyage. I love Lenny, but I think Abraham would have made more since, especially since he mentioned being in Texas. To be honest I’m tiring of TWD, I enjoyed Fear more this season.

    • Addison says:

      Right with you chloe, this makes no sense at all since the state of this world does not allow for easy travel. Unless someone gets their hands on a helicopter there is no way this character could run into the Fear group. Barring a time jump on Fear and the Fear group moving all the way to the east coast to Atlanta and maybe Morgan traveling back to Cynthia to put down his wife and kid. Or one of the Characters from Fear could have a flashback in which they meet Morgan as the whole thing is starting and somewhere a few months in Morgan and his family escape to the east via small plane or helicopter and make it all the way to Atlanta.

      Abraham would have made a lot more sense and I really thought they were going to do this. Because he was in the southwest region already when the whole thing started. Maybe he and his family could have been with the Fear group for a while until his family got killed and he went off on his own to die and happened upon Eugene and Rosita later on. They are already messing up a lot. I don’t know how Kirkman allows this. His story is so good and the changes they make mostly weaken the story. Some of the changes I do like but for the most part. Meh.

    • IMUCU says:

      I’ve liked FTWD more too lately, although the first season was laughable. I think that Morgan is going to go off into the wilderness and end up in the SW. This means there will be a time-jump on FTWD to get them to present time and run into Morgan. Abraham would have made a lot more sense, but it’s Gimple, so it doesn’t have to make sense :-p. TWD has a great story just bad execution. Gimple is so in love with playing with the time/arrangement of events EVERY single episode it gets exhausting and is over used. It would be nice to get back to some linear storytelling with the occasional flash forward/back rather than every episode. However, I’m guessing FTWD will get a bit of TWD story-telling treatment now that Gimple is taking that over too, which is disappointing because FTWD really has improved a lot and become enjoyable. Oh well, guess I’m in either way :-p!

  10. Cranberry says:

    Walking Dead has been dead story wise for too long now, maybe since season 3? Sometimes it picks up a little, but generally it’s pretty stagnate. I try to keep up, but I can’t give it my full attention.

  11. Penfold says:

    I like Fear the Walking Dead. Yes, it’s a bit slow at times, but so is TWD. Plus, there’s fewer characters on Fear so you don’t go weeks without seeing some of them.

    I gave up on TWD after last season’s premiere- it just wasn’t enjoyable to watch anymore.

    Morgan is an interesting choice. I thought for sure it’d be Abraham. I hope it takes place after Dwayne was bitten and killed b/c that would be rough to see. It most likely will- his son is killed and he leaves Atlanta for maybe Texas (where Alisha is going)

    I’ll be watching!

  12. The Original G says:

    This show has moved so slowly for so long that any spark of interest in character is snuffed out by the turgid pace. Add to that the bumping episodes up with an extra 20 minutes of commercials and I have a hard time remembering what I ever saw in this show. Sorry, but I feel FTWD is just a cynical try to expand the franchise and I’m already turned off. Get some plot and move it.

    • themummy says:

      Every single episode is 42 minutes of show and 18 minutes of commercials. That is the standard and that is what they have done in every single hour long episode. I chuckle at people complaining about there being more and more commercials because there is literally 18 minutes of commercials EVERY episode. Always has been.

  13. babykitten says:

    I’ve lived in Georgia for ten years, and next to Scott Wilson (a native Georgian), Lennie is hands down the best at the accent. Next best, IMO, is another Brit, David Morissey.

    I hope Lennie gets the respect he deserves from the FTWD fans, because TWD fans only seem to care about men like Rick and Daryl. Question killing someone and you are weak and useless.

  14. themummy says:

    I was really, really hoping it was Abraham. I miss that dude. Morgan is an interesting choice, but I was really sure it was Abraham…and was excited for that. I look forward to seeing Morgan cross over, though.

  15. Turtle says:

    He’s fantastic and should be an Emmy/Globe/SAG nominee or winner by now, along with Melissa McBride. Unfortunately, I won’t be watching. I respect the craft that goes into both shows, but the storylines are stagnant. The survivors straggle into what they think is a safe zone, a ton of awful sh*t happens, they learn that humans are worse than zombies, rinse, repeat. Due respect to Andrew Lincoln, but his character makes AWFUL decisions on a consistent basis that gets people killed. I just couldn’t suspend disbelief anymore. And, frankly, the world is awful enough right now and I didn’t need one or two additional, meticulously produced hours of despair and nihilism. I thought FTWD would be a different angle, but it’s more of the same.