Walking Dead universe will Rick Grime and Morgan Jones ever reunite?

Fans of The Walking Dead universe have much to look forward to in 2023. Two new spinoffs will release this year, The Walking Dead: Dead City and the Daryl Dixon spinoff. Both series are highly anticipated as they carry on the stories of characters featured in the flagship series that concluded in 2022. In May 2023, Fear the Walking Dead will premiere its eighth and final season. The full-length trailer for Fear TWD has fans excited as one clip teases the possibility of an eventual reunion between Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Morgan Jones (Lennie James).

The new Fear the Walking Dead trailer was released at WonderCon 2023 and showed what fans could expect from the final season. One significant focus will be the mysterious location known as PADRE, which had been long sought after during season 7. PADRE was thought to be a haven where the US government set up a recovery plan and supplies for rebuilding after a catastrophe, like a nuclear explosion that happened in Texas on Fear TWD in season 7.

Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) returned in season 7 with the information that PADRE, which may have started as something to rebuild society, has now been turned into an organization that kidnaps and trains children for an unknown purpose. Madison works as a collector for the group. The season ended with Madison and Morgan heading to PADRE to rescue Morgan’s daughter Mo.

Fear the Walking Dead season 8

Season 8 will experience a seven-year time jump, during which time all of the survivors find themselves living at PADRE. Things look very tense, and it appears they might not live there willingly.

One clip in the trailer excited fans as it revealed that Morgan and Grace (Karen David) and a now eight-year-old Mo (Zoey Merchant) will return to King County, Georgia. They return to the house of Morgan and his son Duane (Adrian Kali Turner) and the “Clear” house featured in season 4 of The Walking Dead. 

What does this mean? Has Morgan finally headed to Alexandria as he has previously planned? Or is this some type of hallucination? In the scene, the viewer doesn’t see Mo, only her voice is heard, which could be a clue to the fact this is a dream or hallucination.

It is confusing, especially because Morgan retrieves the gun that Rick gave him in the pilot episode of The Walking Dead. He was supposed to use this gun to kill his wife Jenny (Keisha Tillis), who had been reanimated but could not. Viewers then hear Grace tell him, “Rick, he gave you this gun for a reason. Use it.” In the trailer, he has the gun at the house and then in the “Clear” apartment. Could Grace have gotten bit, and she is telling him to use the gun on her, as he couldn’t do on his former wife?

It is doubtful that Morgan will reunite with Rick in Fear the Walking Dead, especially because Andrew Lincoln is filming in New Jersey for his spinoff series. But could this be a door opening for Morgan to crossover to the Rick & Michonne spinoff series?

Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC on May 14, 2023, at 9 p.m. ET and on May 11 on AMC+.

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