Fans of The Walking Dead saw Lennie James’ Morgan Jones finally catch up with Rick and the rest of the survivors in the Season 5 finale, ending a season-long quasi-arc as he tracked the gang through the woods. Of course, his arrival came at a less than optimal time, as Rick was covered in zombie guts and had just killed Pete the Abuser. And though it seems like Morgan and Rick would put aside all differences to work together moving forward, the very first image for Season 6 seems to imply a different direction for the duo.
Posted by The Walking Dead on Tuesday, June 23, 2015
AMC released the above image, which will accompany the show’s arrival at San Diego Comic-Con next month, and it manages to convey an “us vs. them” mentality without really doing much at all. On the left we have the stubbled Rick, staring daggers into the side of Morgan’s head – and yes, we realize that this is almost entirely Photoshopped, but it’s done so with a purpose in mind. Rick has his group behind him, with most of their backs to the outer wall of Alexandria, and even though no one is doing anything particularly important, they’ve all got angst-ridden glares pasted on their faces.
And on the right we have Morgan’s disgust, though he isn’t specifically looking at anyone either. Behind him are the Alexandria residents, doing their own share of glaring, with the newly widowed Jessie in front. Oh, and who’s that behind Deanna but the no good son of a bitch Father Gabriel, who has such problems with the things Rick’s crew has done in order to survive. It’s almost strange that Deanna is with them, since she was behind Rick putting a bullet in Pete after he accidentally killed her husband.
It’s not much of a surprise that Rick and Morgan are going to butt heads in some way, as Andrew Lincoln hinted at it following the Season 5 finale, but I kind of expected the rift between them to build gradually. This looks like it might happen sooner, rather than later, and that it will have repercussions throughout the entire community. Fans of the comics know that Rick’s crew and the Alexandria citizens do have some problems before coming together, but it wasn’t ever exactly split down the middle like this – except for Father Gabriel, I guess – and Rick and Morgan weren’t completely at odds like this image seems to imply.
Of course, we also don’t see any of the new characters in this image, so maybe one or more of them will have some kind of impact here, giving Morgan a reason to turn his back on Rick and side with the Alexandrians. Hopefully we’ll get to see some footage soon cluing us in on where things are headed, and hopefully they’re headed in all the right directions.
The Walking Dead will return to AMC for Season 6 this October.
