Morgan Jones has an exceptionally tragic backstory in the Walking Dead franchise, even by zombie apocalypse standards. His experiences took a severe toll on his mental health, and his journey from The Walking Dead to Fear the Walking Dead seemed decidedly ill-fated. He hasn't died yet, however, and he's continued his tendency to try and act as a father figure to characters. CinemaBlend's Nick Venable chatted with Lennie James about Morgan potentially having kids again someday after Duane's death, and James said this:
I think that it's one of the unanswered questions about Morgan, and one of the things to, at some point, investigate with him. Certainly one of the things that I'm keen to investigate about Morgan, as an actor, is how Morgan might fall in love. What that would do to his mental state. Whether that is something that he would walk towards, or run away from, and whether or not he is capable. He keeps trying to be a father figure to other people, [so] I wonder and am intrigued by whether or not he would actually be able to be a father to one of his own again after having lost Duane and Jenny. I meant that is certainly one of the things that I would be interested in. I think there's a lot of fertile ground there with Morgan about doing something that is so, at its core, positive and taking faith in the future, and whether or not Morgan would be capable of that. I think it could lead us to some very interesting areas.
For Morgan, there is a difference between acting as a father figure to somebody and actually being somebody's father. Lennie James' comments indicate that Morgan having children of his own again goes hand-in-hand with Morgan falling in love again. A lot of the trauma that altered Morgan stems from how he lost his family. As if it wasn't bad enough that his wife died at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, he and his son had to watch her shamble around as they tried to stay safe indoors. Then, Duane was bitten by his zombie mom after he was unable to shoot her and put her down. Poor, poor Morgan. Can he find love again?
On the pro side, Rick was able to find love again with Michonne, even if that love story is going to come to an end at some point in the first half of Season 9. Carol apparently started up a romance of her own during the time jump, and she and Morgan were paralleled in many ways. If Rick's relationship with Michonne works after the death of Carl and Carol was able to recover from Sophia enough to start something up with Ezekiel, why not Morgan with somebody he meets on Fear the Walking Dead or after a potential return to The Walking Dead?
On the con side, Morgan may have stepped up as a father figure, but he hasn't really seemed ready to dip his toe back into the zombie apocalypse dating pool, so to speak. Rick and Carol were both settled in one place with the same people for a fair amount of time before they were able to start romances again, and neither has shown any inclinations so far to have more children of their own. Morgan may be better off if he doesn't try to start another family, as sad as that is. Still, we can be sure that Lennie James would nail that arc.
We'll have to wait and see. People are going to need to start making babies if if humanity is going to survive the zombie apocalypse, and the Walking Dead franchise almost certainly isn't going anywhere any time soon. Maybe love and biological fatherhood really is in the future for Morgan.
You can see Morgan in action in new episodes of Fear the Walking Dead on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. He's shown interest in returning to Alexandria, and Lennie James dropped some intriguing comments about Morgan's reaction to the absence of Rick, so we can cross our fingers and hope that James pops back up on The Walking Dead. To find out for yourself, tune in to AMC on Sunday, October 7 at 9 p.m. ET to catch the Season 9 premiere of The Walking Dead. For some non-zombie apocalypse options, take a look at our fall TV guide.
