Throughout the course of its 12-year run, The Walking Dead featured many a memorable characters. From Rick Grimes to Daryl Dixon (and everyone in between), the show featured some of the most compelling, mysterious, and downright captivating characters. Perhaps none was quite as mysterious in those early days as Morgan Jones, played to perfection by Lennie James.
Morgan holds a rare honor that not many TWD cast members can claim, and that is that he appeared in the very first episode. The character rescued Rick and became something of an ally for him, serving as the first friendly face he would see in a world that was anything but friendly. However, Morgan wouldn't join his crusade against the undead for years, becoming a recurring presence instead. Although he could have functioned as a standalone character, the show would find ways to bring him back before eventually slotting him into the world permanently as a main character across two TWD shows.
If you're just starting your TWD journey and would like to know when he returns to the series after that first appearance, here's what you need to know. But be warned, there is more than one return (and thus, plenty of SPOILERS ahead).
The one-off season 3 comeback
Morgan made a surprise return to The Walking Dead in its third season for a single episode, appearing in season 3 episode 12 "Clear". It was unexpected to say the least as Rick was in a completely different stage of his life, having evolved from the vulnerable man out of place in an undead world to a hardened leader protecting a group of survivors from other threats. And he was in the midst of battling a new threat in The Governor when he crossed paths with Morgan.
While Rick, Carl, and Michonne are out scavenging for weapons to use in their battle against the Governor, they come across Morgan - who has boarded himself up in an area of the town full of traps. He tells Rick that he needs to "clear", having had a breakdown after the death of his son Duane. He also berates Rick for not answering the call when he needed him (In the pilot episode, Rick promised to broadcast on the radio at dawn every day but he eventually stopped doing that in the chaos of trying to survive the apocalypse). They were also much further out of range due to the contant moving around so, whenever Morgan did attempt to reach out for help, all he got back was static.
While their relationship is fractured, they find common ground in sharing what they had been through since they last met. Morgan wishes him well and they leave on better terms but he doesn't join his group of survivors, choosing to stay on his own and deal with the grief that he continues to feel over Duane's death.
Morgan's surprise return in TWD season 5
Morgan has more of a recurring role in the fifth season of The Walking Dead. He appears in a post-credits scene in the first episode (titled "No Sanctuary") where he sees the markings for Terminus' "sanctuary" (which were updated to say "No Sanctuary" after our survivors defeated the villains). It's unclear who he is at first as he is wearing a gas mask under a hooded jacket. He removes it and looks out towards the camera in a moment that sent TWD fans into meltdown when it first aired.
The character would then resurface in the midseason finale (season 5 episode 8, titled "Coda") when he enters the church that Rick and the survivors had recently left behind. There, he sees the map that Abraham had left for Rick, with the handwritten note: "Sorry for being an asshole. Come to Washington. The new world's gonna need Rick Grimes." He smiles, knowing that he is on track to find Rick after all this time.
He finally caught up in the group in the season 5 finale (season 5 episode 16 titled "Conquer"), when he happened to walk into Alexandria to see Rick killing Pete Anderson. He had been brought back by Daryl and Aaron, excited to see his friend, and the moment proved to be quite awkward as the leader that he knew Rick to be was a far cry from the blood-soaked executioner stood before him. And this ended the fifth season, leading to Morgan's full-time introduction into The Walking Dead.
Lennie James would officially join the show as a series regular in season 6, sticking with it until season 8, when the character went off the rails again and left in the midst of the war with Negan. Naturally, fans were wondering if he would ever return to the TWD Universe. The answer was complicated because he never left; he just walked away from the original series.
Morgan became the first TWD character to star in Fear The Walking Dead
Morgan's official departure from The Walking Dead was not the last time that Lennie James would play the role; far from it, in fact, as Morgan Jones would join Fear The Walking Dead - debuting in the season 4 premiere. In an incredibly controversial turn, the show dropped its original concept as a prequel series and jumped forward in time to catch up to the main series, allowing it to run parallel to The Walking Dead (for a while). And with that, Morgan immediately became the spinoff's new main character.
The decision was not well-received, with fans deeming it disrespectful to the original showrunner's vision for the series, as well as original cast member Kim Dickens - whose character, Madison Clark, was essentially "killed off" to allow Morgan to take over as the new lead. The direction for Morgan wasn't well-received either, with fans seeing the worst of the character from his last season on The Walking Dead and very little of the exciting, intriguing character from the early seasons.
Morgan leads Fear's group of survivors, attempting to get them to adopt more of a pacifist approach, all while essentially turning them into good samaritans who help people. He would struggle with this balance throughout his five-season stint on the show, eventually reverting to his more violent persona and, once again, finding his way back to his good-natured side too.
Morgan left Fear halfway through the eighth and final season, deciding that it was time to go back to Alexandria and see his friends. It was something of a symbolic setting things right moment for Fear as Dickens had returned in a last-minute change-up that revealed Madison had been alive this whole time, allowing her to end the series as the main character once again.
The door remains open for another comeback in the TWD Universe era
Morgan's exit from Fear The Walking Dead is, at this point, the character's most recent appearance. As Fear's final season aired shortly after the final season of the original series, he wasn't able to make it back on time for the series finale of that one. He has not yet reappeared in any of the spinoffs (Daryl Dixon, Dead City, and miniseries The Ones Who Live) either. And yet, hope remains high that he will return at some point down the line.
There have long been rumors of a TWD crossover spinoff that would essentially bring the three new spinoffs together in an Avengers: Endgame-style grand finale, effectively working as a short twelfth season of The Walking Dead. If that were to be the case, it could result in Morgan making an appearance. Right now, the character has a pretty open-ended ending to his story, and while that's certainly fitting considering Morgan's journey has been defined by travelling across the country to find his friends (or even himself), it would be nice to see him reunite with Rick, Daryl, Carol, Michonne, Maggie and even see that Negan has become something of a decent person, too.
Lennie James did say that Morgan's departure in Fear was "it" for him as the character's journey had been told extensively across four-eight seasons of both shows, but the actor did seemingly leave the door open, suggesting in an interview with Decider that he could return for a story so good that he couldn't say no to. However, he has since said that he hasn't heard anything about a potential comeback as Morgan (although he did say he gets asked about it all the time).
Morgan and Rick's friendship was one of the foundations of The Walking Dead and even though the show did evolve into and out of that throughout its 11-season run, it still resonated with fans because they were the duo that started it all in the pilot episode. That makes his exit from Fear to find Rick all the more fitting - he's ending his journey as he started it. And yet, an actual reunion between the two would be a more fitting conclusion - one that fans would love to see.
Andrew Lincoln has confirmed that he is in talks to return as Rick at some point in the TWD Universe's near-future (despite his character getting his happy ending at the end of The Ones Who Live), so perhaps there is still scope for a Morgan / Rick reunion in the future.
You can rest assured that fans would love to see it!
Add us as a preferred source on Google