In Season 3, Fear the Walking Dead completely changed its story's size and scope, setting its characters within a societal breakdown that felt as culturally relevant as George Romero's classic zombie flicks. Season 4 is going to shake things up a bit further, and though we're not sure yet which Fear the Walking Dead characters will still be alive when the new season starts, we do know The Walking Dead vet Lennie James will be part of the cast. Now, Fear's showrunner Andrew Chambliss has teased what fans can expect from this crossover introduction.
As Morgan Jones steps into the world of Fear The Walking Dead, he'll be continuing the journey he began on The Walking Dead way back in the pilot. . . . When we first met Lennie, he impressed upon us how much he cared about the character and how important it was to him for us to take Morgan to places we hadn't seen before. It's been a great challenge to set for ourselves, and it's what we hope to do with the character --- to push Morgan to places he could only get by coming into contact with the characters on Fear. They'll change him. And, at the same time, he'll change them.
Those would seemingly be two conflicting thoughts, with Morgan both continuing his pilot journey and then also being set up to do things we haven't seen the character do before. Morgan has already been taken to several different emotional extremes in his relatively limited time on the show, but I suppose there are plenty of places left to go with him. We're just hoping Fear the Walking Dead provides a story that's not only meaty but also makes ample sense within this post-apocalyptic universe.
I quite like how Andrew Chambliss said that all these characters would be responsible for changing each other, even if he couldn't specify which characters he was talking about. I think Morgan would have a very interesting impact on the Clark family members, and on Daniel and Strand, although it would absolutely depend on what mindset he's in when he shows up. If he's still in a manic state, then it would be intriguing to see Daniel or Strand try and calm him down, since they know a thing or two about hardships. On the flip side, it would also be cool to see the calmer Morgan getting into a deep conversation about ethics with Nick and Madison. Plus, we'll probably have some other new faces to get used to, so maybe their impact will be even more notable than the regulars' will be.
It's still not clear at what point in the Walking Dead timeline Morgan's jaunt to Texas for Fear will take place, but we have our assumptions. Unless the showrunners are keeping mum about the recasting of Morgan's son Duane, it's not likely that Morgan will make his trek soon after seeing Rick off in the early days of Season 1. Making it happen after Duane's death would make more sense, but then we're not quite sure when Morgan and Eastman first got together to purge the former's ill will. Of course, it's entirely possible that Fear the Walking Dead will introduce a big time jump to bring Morgan into the story at a point after everything we've seen from him on The Walking Dead proper. Note that this scenario would lose a lot of its credibility if Morgan dies in the back half of Season 8.
Below, you can check out EW's very first look at Morgan Jones within the world of Fear the Walking Dead. (We did already see him on the set, but this is an official still.)
We're not yet sure when Fear the Walking Dead Season 4 will make its big premiere on AMC, but it'll likely happen as the summer is kicking off. In the meantime, The Walking Dead will return for the back half of Season 8 on Sunday, February, February 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. And to learn when everything else will debut in the coming months, head to our midseason premiere schedule.
