Spoilers below for the Season 6 premiere for AMC's Fear the Walking Dead.
After a cold open that introduced a new potential threat by way of the episode's titular phrase "The End Is the Beginning," Fear the Walking Dead provided a more clear update on Morgan's unexpected whereabouts with the start of Season 6. Left shot and bleeding in the Season 5 finale, Morgan managed to survive more than a month after that particular plight, and the gangrenous nature giving him those red eyes also gave him the somewhat miraculous advantage of not being targeted by walkers.
Lennie James and other Fear the Walking Dead cast members recently spoke with CinemaBlend and other outlets about the first few episodes of Season 6, and the actor talked about how much he enjoyed the different and new ways Morgan has been used from season to season. When asked about Morgan's Carol-esque turn in the Season 6 premiere, during which he actively tried to avoid Isaac's assistance and companionship, here's how James answered:
Well, it's a weird thing to say, but I'm gonna say it: I enjoyed it, really. I'm constantly surprised that we're coming up with with new ideas for walkers. I'm constantly surprised that we're coming up with new characters that fit in our story, and like I said before, I'm constantly surprised with the challenges that Morgan presents me. I think that the fact that he could walk amongst the walkers, as it were, I took it as like it was a superpower. I was like, 'Well, this is new,' and I just relished it. As to his journey to the end, I'm always looking for what is the truth of this of this guy and his journey and his truth at that particular moment in time is he believes he's lost everything, and that his belief that he can't die is is being tested right now. But he does believe that he has a purpose, and there's a reason why he's in this limbo, this place between life and death, and he's there to make something safe for Grace. That's all that there is left for him, because he can feel himself dying. So, I mean, that's how I saw it, and that's how I kind of tackled it.
I cannot lie, Morgan's water tower abode was pretty badass, as somewhat hard as it is to believe that it exists. And if he made that all happen in part to make sure Karen David's Grace has a safe and sound place to call home at some point in the future after she returns to the show, then it's that much more of a bummer that it got demolished by Demetrius Grosse's short-lived Josiah LaRoux. Of course, he's also being motivated by his mystery savior that saved him from walkers and patched up his wounds.
Much as he may have wanted to fight against the instinct at first, Morgan went along with the secret-hiding Isaac to find his pregnant wife, which definitely served as a surrogate situation for the pregnant Grace. Plus, it got Morgan to go buck on a bunch of walkers at the same time. And on top of all that, Isaac reversed Morgan's death wish by taking the infection-causing bullet out of his body before it went the whole nine yards and turned him into a walker. Unless what he said was legit, and "Morgan Jones is dead" now.
Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 is obviously starting later than usual seasons do, with pandemic shutdowns and other reasons going into new episodes being pushed until later in 2020. (The Walking Dead dealt with its own issues in finally getting episode 1016 in front of viewers.) That long delay meant none of the Fear cast members could really talk much about what viewers would be getting when Season 6 started. During the aforementioned press event, I asked Lennie James how he felt about having to keep Morgan's fate a secret for around six months longer than he usually had to keep premiere episode secrets. He answered with:
It's a weird one, really, because I was fine with keeping the secret, except at times when you have to talk about the episodes, where you have to do interviews and doing all of that. And I remember doing – it might have been San Diego Comic-Con – and I was on with Colman and Alycia and they were asking questions about the new season and what was happening, and I found that I could say absolutely nothing, and it was Alicia who went, 'You can't say anything, can you?' And I went, 'No, I can't.' That's kind of when it hit me. I'm glad we can talk about it now, just because I think it's an interesting addition to the Morgan story and it's a good kind of kickoff to who he's going to be this season and what he's going to become and where he's going to go. It has been tricky, but it's always been tricky in this particular universe. I learned very quickly and very early on when I went back to The Walking Dead and they stuck me in the middle of nowhere and made everybody around me sign NDAs. They take keeping secrets seriously here, so I'm kind of well-practiced, but this was a tricky one, that's for sure.
Considering this first episode focused entirely on Morgan's storyline – to the point where a baby was named after him – it intentionally left a whole lot of unanswered questions about the key that Josiah had around his neck, as well as what's happening with most of the other characters in this show. Now that Virginia knows for sure that Morgan is alive and capable of beheading others, it'll be interesting to see how she reacts. She looked a little too scared for her own good in my eyes.
Fear the Walking Dead is now back in full for Season 6, which airs Sunday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET, right before brand new episodes of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. While waiting for Sunday night to get here, check out our Fall TV 2020 premiere schedule to stay up to date with all the new and returning shows on the way, and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more exclusive content from Fear the Walking Dead and other shows in AMC's horror drama universe.
