Lennie James Exits ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ in Mid-Season Finale: “Yeah, I’m Done”

After nearly 13 years, Lennie James is done with The Walking Dead. The actor, who first portrayed Morgan Jones in the pilot episode of The Walking Dead back in 2010 made his exit at the end of this week’s episode of the spinoff show, Fear the Walking Dead, the midseason finale of the final season. A surprising time to exit the series, with only six episodes left to go in Fear‘s run. But as James tells it, it seems like it was time for Morgan to pick up his killing stick and head into the great TV yonder.

“For me, that’s it,” James told Decider. “It’s the end of the end really for me. I mean, if you see me again, pick up the staff and start swinging it, it’s because there was a story presented to me that I just could not say no to. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m up and out.”

What James is referring to is, particularly for a franchise that doesn’t hesitate to slaughter its characters, a relatively open-ended finish for Morgan that would allow him to pop up in future spinoffs. In the episode, titled “All I See Is Red”, Morgan is once again disassociating after the death of his long-time love Grace (Karen David), but manages to get himself under control enough to solve the problem of this half-season’s villains PADRE. With that in the rear-view mirror, Morgan takes his adoptive daughter Mo (Zoey Merchant), visits the grave of his mentor Eastman (John Carroll Lynch), and heads off to go find Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).

It’s that last part that will definitely perk up the ears of any of the franchise’s many fans… When Rick first left Morgan behind in the pilot of TWD, he promised to call him every day on his walkie-talkie. That eventually trickled off as the seasons continued, and eventually, Morgan did find Rick again before James transferred over to Fear. So Morgan leaving while doing the same — calling Rick every day on his own walkie-talkie this time — is a nice parallel to the past and sends Morgan off with a strong emotional anchor.

It also teases that while James seems done with the franchise, the franchise ain’t done with him. And in fact, with a Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) spinoff series in the works — filming wrapped earlier this year and it’s scheduled to be released in 2024 — it’s logical to think that James could bring Morgan back sooner, rather than later.

…Or we could take James at his word. And three of those words are, “Yeah, I’m done.”

To find out more about James filming his final episode, and his thoughts on putting Morgan to rest, read on.

Decider: I just wanted to ask you, just to make sure. Is this your last episode of Fear the Walking Dead? 

Lennie James: Yeah, I’m done. 

What was your last moment on set like? What was the feeling like walking off of Walking Dead for possibly the final time?

It was very weird, really, because we were shooting a scene in the middle of freight containers, and it was a scene with me and Kim [Dickens] and Ruben [Bladés]. We had to finish it because we were losing the light. It was outside. It was part of a stunt, and part of the scene mostly between myself and Kim. And then basically the light decided when we finished because it was too dark to shoot. So we ended, and we were a long way from base. We were a long way from home. But lots of people found themselves there, arrived, and [director] Michael [E. Satrazemis], Mikey, such a genius, called it and said, “that’s it for Lennie.” It was weird because it was a big old intensive scene. And to be honest, at the time, it felt like just an episode wrap. It didn’t feel I didn’t feel the weight of “oh my god, the whole thing is over.” But over the next few days and weeks, it certainly hit me because you’re suddenly out of the routine, but the show is still going on. So it was weird. It was gradual. It was profound.

As much as I was very surprised to see you exiting halfway through the season, there’s certainly a nice parallel there in terms of basically passing the baton back to Kim Dickens. Was that part of the discussion, with you leaving halfway through the final season?

I think so… I was really glad and touched that my final scene was with Kim. That felt like the gods had done me a solid and it made it special. And also, having Ruben there as well, it was lovely. I mean, sometimes these things are happenstance and sometimes these things are serious. There were other considerations that were taken into account that meant I did half the season in the way that I did half the season But that sense of handing it back to Kim certainly is possibly part of it. It’s unavoidable, really. So yes.

When we last talked, you seem pretty settled with leaving Morgan behind. But here at the end, we find out that he and Mo are heading off to find Rick Grimes. Is that just a dot dot dot ellipses to leave the door open? Is there potentially more there to look into?

I don’t know if there’s more there to look into. It’s going to come out of the mind of [The Walking Dead universe CCO] Mr. [Scott M.] Gimple or [Fear the Walking Dead showrunners] Andrew [Chambliss] and Ian [Goldberg] really. But for me, that’s it. It’s the end of the end really for me. I mean, if you see me again, pick up the staff and start swinging it, it’s because there was a story presented to me that I just could not say no to. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m up and out.

In the real world, though, are you settled with the fact that fans are now going to ask you for the rest of your life about reuniting with Rick Grimes?

[Laughs] Well, I’ve lived with it long enough so far. So you know, on one level nothing’s changed, but hopefully, those questions will wear off. But who knows?

I did love all of the callbacks and parallels, like Morgan calling Rick every day on the walkie just like Rick did for him, visiting Eastman’s grave… Did you have a particular moment throughout the episode that was special for you? Either a location or a scene that sparked some sort of memory?

Eastman’s grave was a biggie for me.

What was it about that in particular that brought you back to that moment?

Well, it’s a weird one, really. And I think a lot of it is a testament to John Carroll Lynch. It was one episode. But the story that they created, that they came up with in that one episode, as the kind of origin story of Morgan that we came to know after “Clear”… The origin story of that is so fundamental to who Morgan is and what he’s been grappling with, and the principles that he’s been trying to live by, and what he’s been trying to focus on, and how important that was to his mind and body and his ability to carry on, carry on living, really. And that’s all really down to Eastman. I thought it was a lovely touch that it was important to Morgan before he went forward, that he went back to Eastman.

At this point, you’re an old hand at the “clear” stuff, that’s cropped up a bunch throughout Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. But Morgan is disassociating throughout this episode… From an acting perspective, how do you handle that moment when you’re coming out of Morgan’s fugue state?

I’m glad you asked that question because I found it really hard, actually. It wasn’t until I was doing it. And because I don’t like, necessarily as an actor, I don’t like tricks. I am always trying to recreate, bring to life something real… Sounds weird, and I don’t really like talking about acting, but I don’t want to be pretending, I want to be trying to bring something real to that moment… I grappled with it a lot. I talked to the guys about it a lot. I spoke to Mikey about it a lot, I spoke with Kim about it trying to navigate. You know, asking her what it read like, how did it feel? Because I just think that there are two things going on. Well, three things going on. There is what it feels like for Morgan, what it looks like for someone else, and how it’s perceived by the audience. So there are a few things that you’re playing with. I don’t know whether or not I ever nailed it to my own satisfaction. But I just tried to find a real-world equivalence. And there is, you know, certain levels of people who have suffered trauma and are living with trauma. I’m led to understand that there are moments where they can see what’s in front of them, but they can’t see what’s in front of them. And I just tried to imagine that and try to bring that to life.

From a logistical perspective, did you ever talk about what Morgan does in his lost time? For blocking reasons, if nothing else, or is that not important? Is it more about the moment before the moment, and the one immediately after?

We have done that in the past when it’s been appropriate. One of the things about this particular episode is that what we were focusing on quite a lot was what he didn’t know he was doing. So it wasn’t as important to know what he was doing in those states because he’s constantly waking up in surprise. He’s constantly waking up going “I don’t know what I just did. I don’t know where I just was. I don’t know what’s happening.” And the more he’s frightened by it, the more it keeps happening, so we didn’t speak about it in Morgan’s final episode too much.

This is getting purely into speculation but do you think that he will ever leave the clear mode completely behind, or is that something he’d always carry with them?

I think it’s something he’s always gonna carry with him. I don’t think you recover from that state of being. I just think you learn how to live with it.

Jumping back a little bit, Morgan ultimately beats PADRE by putting down his weapons and telling the kids they can go. He talks about it a little bit in the episode, but I was curious to hear from you. Why do you think he made that choice?

Because they’re kids. Because Morgan’s mantra is “all life is precious,” and that’s a plea for hope and for the future. And everything that he saw, that the kids were doing, while they were with PADRE and what PADRE was ultimately about was, how little life matters. Morgan is trying to say that it’s why he holds on so tightly to Mo, because she’s the future, she’s hope. Children are the embodiment of hope… He’s trying to say “you define what comes, you decide what comes next. Don’t let someone decide it for you.”

Mo does come back to him though in a, “if you love something, set it free” type moment. Obviously, nothing can replace the death of Duane, his wife, Grace, all the people he’s left behind. But what kind of peace does it bring him to have Mo by his side in these moments?

I think it’s kind of vital from Morgan. Morgan is at his best when he’s looking after somebody else. And Mo represents that, Morgan is energized when he’s fighting for the people that he loves. Mo is the first on that list at the moment. Both that he loves her and that he made a promise to her real parents. She embodies on both levels what is Morgan’s strength, and sometimes his vulnerability is that he’s loyal to a fault. He’s a man of his word.

Do you have a takeaway from your time on Walking Dead? I know there are probably too many to count given that you’re on it for so many years. But what’s something that you feel like you’ve learned over the course of your time with this franchise?

I think one of the biggest things that The Walking Dead has done is that outside of possibly Star Trek, it redefined the relationship between a television show and its audience. The back and forth between us and the fans of the show, the commitment that the show did, the influence that it had on not just our lives, but the lives of the people who watched and loved the show, has been immense. I remember being at a convention and meeting a group of women who literally, I think there must have been about 20 of them, and literally were from all over the world. We were in Tulsa or Denver or somewhere like that. And they had all started a relationship, started a club, started a group online as fans of The Walking Dead, and they had come from all over the world, to Tulsa, or Denver, wherever it was, to meet for the first time. And I was just like, “that’s amazing.”

On one level that has nothing to do with us, because you know, we didn’t organize it for them. But on another level, It was something that you could never have decided was going to happen. It was completely out of our control and sprung simply out of the journey that we’ve all been on. And that journey has been constantly surprising.

But that’s just the one that jumps out at this particular moment in time. Ask me in five minutes’ time, I’ll tell you a completely different one.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Fear the Walking Dead will return for the second half of Season 8 later this year on AMC and AMC+.