The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead timelines and the Morgan crossover

Talking Dead revealed the crossover character between The Walking Dead and Fear TWD last night. But how will the two timelines sync up?

Fans were surprised by the reveal of the crossover character between The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead last night. Morgan Jones was not a character that most fans had even considered to be the crossover character.

Most of the speculation focused on one of the members of Abraham’s Army being the crossover character. That would have made sense since Fear The Walking Dead is moving their storyline and shooting to Texas. Rosita, Abraham and Eugene are all from Texas and met up with each other in Texas.

But The Walking Dead chose to take the non-obvious route and announced that Morgan would be the crossover character. That decision confused many fans since Morgan has no apparent ties to Texas. And Morgan’s timeline in The Walking Dead is pretty firmly established. So how is possible that Morgan is going to be in Texas?

Let’s take a detailed look at the timelines of the two shows and see if there is any possibility that Morgan’s appearance in Fear The Walking Dead could fit into the timelines of the two shows.

Fear The Walking Dead

According to The Walking Dead Wiki the events that finished up season 3 of Fear The Walking Dead, including the dam blowing up, happened on day 64 of the outbreak. So from season 1 to season 3 only covered a total of 64 days. It seems like the group’s journey to Mexico and then back to the Otto ranch should have taken longer than just 64 days. But officially the season finale of Fear The Walking Dead season 3 was on day 64 of the outbreak.

The Walking Dead

On day 64 of the outbreak over in The Walking Dead the group had just left the CDC and become stranded on the highway near the Greene farm where Sophia went missing. Again according to The Walking Dead Wiki season 2 of The Walking Dead began with “What Lies Ahead” on day 65 of the outbreak.

Rick wakes up in the hospital on day 59 of the outbreak. And he leaves Morgan in the house near Rick’s old house on day 60. So as of day 60 Morgan is still in Georgia. We know that Morgan returns to that house where he and Dwayne set up camp and where Morgan’s wife died and turned. Morgan is shown trying to find the courage to put his wife down but he can’t.

Unless Morgan left that house with Dwayne and managed to cover the roughly 800 miles to Texas from Georgia in four days there is no way for Morgan to be in Texas on day 64 of the outbreak.

However, Morgan is not seen again until the “Clear” episode in season 3. Does that mean he could have gone to Texas in the interim? Probably not.

Morgan In Season Three Of The Walking Dead

The next time Morgan appears, in season 3 of The Walking Dead, he is holed up in an apartment near the house where his wife died and near Rick’s old house. It is day 314 of the outbreak at this point. At first glance it looks like there would be time for Morgan to have gone to Texas because approximately 250 days have elapsed since Rick and Morgan have seen each other.

But Morgan’s story establishes that he’s been in or near the same place since he found Rick.

Morgan’s Storyline

Morgan tells Rick that he was unable to put his wife down. She eventually killed Dwayne and he turned. That’s what sent Morgan over the edge and turned him into the walker killing machine he was when Rick found him.

He also said that he kept trying to reach Rick on the walkie that Rick had given him. He wouldn’t have done that if he had gone to Texas. And since Dwayne and his wife Jennie both died in Georgia it wouldn’t make sense for him to go to Texas and then return to the small town in Georgia where they died to kill walkers.

What makes sense is that Morgan has been in and around the town where he found Rick since he found Rick.

So while it’s possible that Morgan went to Texas and returned to Georgia in between “Days Gone Bye” and “Clear” it’s highly unlikely.

Eastman

After Morgan knocks over a lantern and sets fire to the apartment that he was holed up in he sets out into the world again. He finds Eastman’s place in Georgia on day 521 of the outbreak. That does leave a small window of time where he could have left the state. But again that’s highly unlikely.

And after Eastman is killed Morgan sets off to find Rick and follows the map tracking Rick from Georgia to Virginia.

While it’s technically possible for Morgan to show up in Texas at some point in the Fear The Walking Dead storyline it’s really unlikely. So how does Morgan show up in the Fear story?

Fear The Walking Dead Time Jump

The only way for Morgan to show up in the Fear The Walking Dead timeline is for Fear The Walking Dead to have a significant time jump before the start of Season 4. If Fear The Walking Dead jumps ahead to where The Walking Dead storyline is, which is 610 days after the outbreak as of season 8, Morgan could fit into the Fear storyline.

If Morgan leaves The Kingdom after All Out War and goes off his own, which is definitely in his character to do, he could travel alone to Texas and meet up with the Fear The Walking Dead characters. That would fit into both timelines and would be in keeping with Morgan’s personality now that he’s back in “Clear” killing mode and trying to process everything that happened during All Out War.

A Time Jump Would Reset The Fear The Walking Dead Story

A time jump also makes sense for Fear The Walking Dead. The story needs to reboot itself after the destruction of the dam. Only a few of the original characters remain at this point, and they are all scattered.

A time jump would give the writers the chance to reunite the characters and get them to Texas, telling the story of how that happened in flashbacks. Fear The Walking Dead needs a story reboot and a time jump would be a great way for the show to essentially start over. With a new showrunner and with Scott Gimple coming on board as an Executive Producer it makes sense that starting a new storyline after a time jump would happen.

Looking closely at the timelines of the two shows a time jump is the only way that a Fear The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead crossover with Morgan could work within the timeline that’s already been established for Morgan on The Walking Dead.