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.
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.
Photos courtesy of AMC
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