The Walking Dead: Lennie James Interview - Season 8, Morgan's Arc, & All-Out War
Morgan's Journey
JH: Morgan has had one of the most fascinating arcs on the entire show - from the first episode to his return in Season 3 and so on. Where do you want to take that next?
LJ: Just to keep it as complicated, to keep it as challenging, both for me to play and for the audience to take onboard. To keep it true to Morgan as a character, and not to bottle it really! Not to sell out the argument that he's trying to have, in order to have a winner and a loser. I think the points that Morgan is making are vital in this world, they're important, and they're necessary for both the characters of this show to ask themselves, but they're also necessary for the viewers of this show to ask themselves.
I think what they've done with Morgan, as far as this argument is concerned, has been very brave, and I would argue and fight for them to continue being as brave as they have. I don't mind people being pissed off with me, or pissed off with Morgan, as long as we're having a sensible and important conversation.
JH: We’ve had a couple of really Morgan-centric instalments, with Clear and Here's Not Here, which are two all-time great episodes of the show, and you and Scott Gimple have really taken this character on a journey.
LJ: Thank you.
JH: Can we expect another deep-dive into Morgan?
LJ: Er, I can't say specifically, but I hope it happens. One of the gifts of playing Morgan is the responsibility Scott has taken for the development of that character.
JH: In terms of that development, the character you play is quite different to the character in the comics. Does that give you a greater sense of freedom with how you approach the character?
LJ: To be honest, when I first got the job and did the pilot, I read the first comic book. Frank Darabont, who directed the first season, saw me reading it on set, and very early on he said 'read them if you want to read them and if you're enjoying them, but if you're reading them for the exploration and development of your character then there's very little point, as we're very much thinking of going in a different direction.' That was right there at the beginning with Frank, and Scott has more than taken that up, and taken Morgan - from what I understand - in a very different way to where he is in the comics.
JH: Yeah, massively. Just in terms of where Morgan's going next, obviously in Season 7 the motivation for him killing again was the death of Benjamin. He killed Richard because of that, but it was the Saviour Jared who actually killed Benjamin - could we see conflict between him and Morgan in Season 8? Will there be some resolution to that?
LJ: All I can say is their paths do cross again. Beyond that, I genuinely can't say.
JH: That's fair enough. Do your paths cross with Negan as well, because you haven't had much to do with him yet?
LJ: I haven't come across Negan as yet, no, and as we speak it's again another question I cannot answer [laughs]. I can't tell you whether our paths will cross or not.
JH: Haha, no problem. Final question. The Walking Dead is known for killing off its characters. You've said you want to stay on the show, but if and when it is your time, how do you hope it happens?
LJ: I didn't really give it any thought, until I saw Sonequa [Martin-Green]'s exit last season. I just thought that was a fantastic way to go out. Everybody who goes out on our show wants to do the transformation in some shape or form, wants to do the 'what am I gonna look like as a walker?' kind of transformation. So any exit for me would, hopefully, involve the chance to come back as my version of a walker. Hopefully it would be as integral to the story as Sasha's was, I just thought that was a brilliant way out, to sacrifice yourself in order to try take Negan out. Something that has that kind of impact would be good. Failing that, just let him wander off into the dark and just hear him howl.
JH: Perfect. Thank you very much!
LJ: Cheers, good speaking to you.
The Walking Dead returns next Monday at 9pm on FOX.