For years, fans were told that a crossover between AMC’s smash-hit The Walking Dead and its distantly-related sister show Fear The Walking Dead was impossible. Back at October’s New York Comic-Con, though, the (zombie) cat was finally let out of the bag: a character from one of the shows would be appearing on the other show in the next season.
Fans got theorizing about who it could be and the most common answer was Michael Cudlitz’s Abraham Ford, the much-missed survivor who was brutally murdered by Negan in TWD‘s season 7 premiere. You see, Fear‘s season 3 finale teased that the characters would be travelling to Texas in season 4, suggesting that a run-in with the Texas-born Abraham could be on the cards. Which would also reveal that Fear is set slightly prior to TWD.
On Friday, we learned that the name of the character who would form the crux of the crossover would be revealed on this Sunday’s edition of Talking Dead, following the latest episode of The Walking Dead season 8. It was then leaked in a Tweet that’s since been deleted that the character making the jump originated on TWD and will appear in Fear season 4 – which was another hint that the crossover will involve Abraham.
Now, however, we finally know who will be the one to connect the two shows, and it’s not who we thought, as the actor hopping over the fence will be none other than Lennie James, who’ll be reprising his role as Morgan in Fear the Walking Dead‘s fourth season. It’s unclear how exactly he’ll factor into things and no further details have been disclosed at this time, but with this now out in the open, fans are sure to start theorizing, and we can’t wait to see what they come up with!
“Even though Morgan is going to be featured on Fear, he has a lot of story left on The Walking Dead,” showrunner Scott M. Gimple noted. “Morgan’s arc on The Walking Dead Season 8 positioned him for the story on Fear. It was also important to see Fear‘s world and characters through new yet familiar eyes.”
“From the very first moment that the whole suggestion of Morgan, my character, going over to Fear The Walking Dead — the hardest part of it from beginning until now has been leaving The Walking Dead,” James said, joining Talking Dead via satellite from Austin, Texas.
“Leaving that cast, leaving that crew. And I’ve said my goodbyes to the cast and stuff, and I’ve said my goodbyes to the crew, but I would just like to say about the crew — because as actors, we take all the bows — but actually that show stands or falls pretty much on the back of that crew. They’re an amazing bunch of people and I’m going to miss them very, very, very much.”
You can catch the crossover with TWD when Fear The Walking Dead returns in 2018. It hasn’t got an official release date just yet, but going by previous seasons, our best guess would be June. In the meantime, The Walking Dead‘s eighth season continues every Sunday on AMC.