The Walking Dead fans were first introduced to Morgan Jones (Lennie James) in The Walking Dead's pilot episode, "Days Gone Bye," as a father who helped Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) learn the ways of the zombie apocalypse. James didn't return as Morgan again until Season 3, Episode 12, "Clear," where it's revealed his son turned into a walker. Since then, he appeared in Seasons 6-8 of The Walking Dead and made the transition to the spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead as its protagonist after Madison Clark's (Kim Dickens) departure.
One of the longest-standing characters in The Walking Dead universe, Morgan has provided a realistic representation of humanity's reaction to the downfall of society. His reaction to trauma has teetered between a pacifist philosophy and an "everyone for themselves" viewpoint until he found a balance in later seasons of Fear the Walking Dead. Ahead of the final season premiere, Lennie James talked to CBR about whether he'll ever return as Morgan after Season 8, the joys of working with Kim Dickens, and returning to King County, Georgia one last time.
CBR: It's strange to think the show is ending. How have you been feeling about this being the final season?
Lennie James: Well, as happens with all of these things, our knowledge of when things are happening happens slightly different [than] fans and the folks who watch it. The possibility of this has been talked about for a little bit. It didn't [come] as a complete and utter surprise. I've had plenty of time to get used to the idea and the possibility of it. Both The Walking Dead and Fear [The Walking Dead] had a really good run. There aren't that many shows that get to 11 seasons. There aren't that many shows that get to eight seasons. We did well, and I've been very proud of the job that we've done. Things have to end. Once you realize that's going to happen, all it becomes about is, "How does it end? How much say do you have in trying to get it to finish in a way that you find satisfactory?"
Is Season 8 the end of the road for Morgan? Or is there a possibility we might see him pop up somewhere else down the line?
This is it for me. He's been around long enough. For me to pick up the stick again, it would have to be an amazing storyline. It would have to be a situation where I couldn't look back on all the episodes that I've done so far and go, "No, I did that in episode such and such in Season such and such." I'm not interested in repeating myself with Morgan at the moment. I think it would kind of slightly tarnish his legacy.
On that note, it's been such an eventful journey for you. What's been the most challenging part of portraying Morgan throughout all these years and going through so many arcs with him?
The most challenging part of playing Morgan is making his choices and what happens to him believable [as] one man [so] that he can still stand up and tell his story. As an actor, if he stopped interesting me, he would stop interesting everyone else. The biggest battle was to keep him relevant, to keep him interesting, to keep him growing, and to keep him being a person in this world. That was always the job I've been trying to do -- to carry the audience along Morgan's journey.
Is there any specific moment in Morgan's journey that stands out to you as your favorite?
First day on set in the first ever episode [of The Walking Dead]. Me and Andrew [Lincoln], being directed by Frank Darabont in the house in King County with Adrian [Kali Turner] playing my son and sitting in a room playing the scenes as if they were theater. Just the unexpectedness of it being two English guys playing two Southern American men just was... I didn't even realize at the time that it was the beginning of a very, very long road. But when I look back on it, just how fortuitous that was, how unlikely that was, how much fun that was, how excited I was to work with Darabont. It was a good time filming, and it's been the blueprint of every single day that I walked onto the set. Since then, [it's] about trying to hold onto that feeling, recreate that feeling, and have that filming again.
You mentioned King County, which popped up in the Season 8 trailer. What was your reaction to learning you were going to go back there?
I'll be honest with you. My reaction was: "Don't go back there unless it's worth it. Don't go there unless we learn something new. Don't go there unless it's fundamental to the story we are telling in the present. Don't go there as a gimmick." I'm not interested in going there just for the sake of going there because it's something that will make the fans go, "Oooh!" Having said that, it's in the trailer. So the guys must have listened to me because otherwise, we wouldn't have done it. There's a reason for us to be there. It's not as straightforward as people might think. It is fundamental to who Morgan is at this particular moment, who he wants to be, and who he intends to be. I'm excited for the fans who know the relevance of the place. I'm excited for them to see those episodes.
Does returning to King County bring closure to Morgan's story, or does it open up a whole can of worms that needs to be closed again?
A little bit of both.
You've been around since the first episode of The Walking Dead, so you may have a say in your character and where his story goes just a little bit. Was there anything that you advocated for in the final season for Morgan?
There were little things in the way that he parented Mo that were both echoes of how he parented Duane and that were also different because he had learned from his mistakes. They're not always obvious. In Mo, he's raising a girl child as opposed to a boy child. It's deeper into the apocalypse, [and] he knows more about this world. He realizes that this child has to grow up in this world, where I think when he was raising Duane, he was still with echoes of, "This isn't going to last long. This isn't going to be forever." Whereas with Mo, he knows that it possibly is and what she's going to have to do in the world. He's going to have to rethink what he thinks of her and also what he thinks of himself.
The time jump was another surprising factor this season. How did you work with the writers and the other actors to fill in the gaps?
It was my main focus. That jumping seven years isn't just because we said so. For me, anyway, and I know a number of the other actors did it as well. They had to live those seven years in their brains. They had to make connections. They had to decide who they are. Some people went for major physical differences, [and] others didn't. I just got a little bit grayer and a little hairier on the face. But those seven years had to count. [Those] seven years had to have an effect.
We've been talking about relationships, and of course, Madison and Morgan's relationship is something everybody's looking forward to because we only got a teaser of it in the Season 7 finale. How did you work with Kim Dickens to balance those two personalities on-screen this season?
It's really easy doing that with Kim because our working styles are not too different. We just like to do it. We'll talk about it for a bit, but after a while, talking about it is just talking about it. Both of our mantras [are], "If the camera doesn't see it, it didn't happen." We just like to do it, and we're both so aware of our characters' histories because we've lived them. So what it affords us is not overthinking it but just doing it. Just being in the situation and knowing I'm bringing all of Morgan, and she's bringing all of Madison.
What was most exciting about working with Kim is that you go into a scene not knowing what's going to happen. Even on the fifth or sixth take, it can be something new, or something surprising can come up. Something in the moment can come up. That's because we trust each other. We enjoy working together. We have a lot of fun. You can bring your game and see what happens on that day. We're not at home working it out, deciding what we are going to do separately. We are preparing ourselves so that when we come together, we can see what happens. It was the first full season that we worked together. Every time I read a script and saw that I had scenes with Kim, they were always scenes I was looking forward to -- even when they were wet, horrible, cold at night scenes.
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 premieres May 14 at 9:00 PM ET on AMC and AMC+, with new episodes releasing every Sunday.