What happened to Morgan (Lennie James) after he made the jump from The Walking Dead to Fear the Walking Dead? Morgan departed Rick’s group at the end of The Walking Dead season 8, and reappeared as a member of the main cast in Fear the Walking Dead season 5. So viewers who only watch The Walking Dead may not be aware of Morgan’s current activities in the rest of the universe.
Morgan has been a part of The Walking Dead since the very beginning, but he wasn’t always around. He was the first living person who Rick (Andrew Lincoln) came across when he woke up from his coma. Following a few sporadic guest appearances, Morgan finally joined the fold at the end of season 5 after making a long trek to Alexandria. Morgan, fueled by vengeance after the death of a young boy from the Kingdom, played a vital role in the battle against Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors. Once it was all over, Morgan paid a visit to Jadis (Pollyanne McIntosh) and told her that she could join them. Instead of accompanying her, Morgan stayed behind to think. When Walking Dead returned for season 9, Morgan was already gone.
Morgan’s departure actually occurred in Fear the Walking Dead’s season 4 premiere. After Rick and the others failed to convince Morgan to stay, Morgan left Virginia and began a long, solo journey. He eventually found himself in Texas, where he met wandering cowboy and expert marksman John Dorie (Garrett Dillahunt) and former journalist Althea (Maggie Grace). At this point in Morgan’s life, he was determined to be on his own, but situations kept forcing him to spend his time in the company of others.
Eventually, Morgan and his new friends crossed paths with Fear the Walking Dead’s core group. The two groups ended up forming one. After discovering a system established by a man called Polar Bear (Stephen Henderson) to leave supplies for those who needed them, Morgan and the others decided to continue Polar Bear’s work. They made a denim factory their new headquarters and worked together to help other survivors. By this time, Morgan had given up on his original plan of living in isolation. Now, he has a group of his own that depends on his leadership.
Shortly after being kicked out by the factory’s original owner, Logan (Matt Frewer), Morgan gained his first love interest in the form of Grace (Karen David), a woman who was supposedly dying of radiation sickness. Later, they all got caught up in a conflict with a new organization known as the Pioneers, whose primary goal was expansion. Their ambitious leader, Virginia (Colbie Minifie), tried to force them into submission, but they resisted her at every turn.
At the end of the season, Morgan was forced to let Virginia take his group and divide them up so that they could survive. Unfortunately, Virginia had identified Morgan as a threat, as she believed his ideology clashed too much with hers for him to work as a member of the Pioneers, so she shot Morgan him and left him for dead. With zombies all around him, Morgan’s fate is currently up in the air. Whether he lives or dies won’t be determined until Fear the Walking Dead returns for season 6. If he survives, Morgan will have his work cut out for him if he hopes to reunite his group. Given how close he's grown to these people, a return to The Walking Dead feels unlikely to ever happen. It would seem that Fear the Walking Dead has become a permanent home for him.