Both Rick Grimes and Morgan Jones have left the cast of The Walking Dead - but there is a way they could be reunited in the three upcoming Walking Dead movies. With the main Walking Dead show leaping forward six years in time following Rick's "death," and Fear the Walking Dead's storyline still lagging behind that time jump, it's perfectly feasible that Morgan and Rick could end up in the same place.
The two characters share an increasingly rare quality: both were introduced in the first season of The Walking Dead, and both are still alive. In fact, Morgan was the first person that Rick met after waking up from his coma - before he was reunited with his family, and before he met the rest of the group of Atlanta survivors. Had it not been for Morgan, Rick could well have died in his initial disorientation and confusion. Likewise, Morgan might not have made it if Rick hadn't taken him to the cache of weapons at the sheriff's station.
Related: The Walking Dead Has Already Replaced Carl Grimes
Morgan strayed in and out of the plot of The Walking Dead until seasons 6 through to 8, when he became a regular part of the cast. In the season 8 finale, Morgan made the decision to leave Alexandria and went on a journey that would transfer the character over to spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead, where he is currently part of the main cast. Rick recently made his permanent exit from The Walking Dead and is now set to return in three feature-length movies, so it might seem as though he and Morgan are separated for good. However, that's not necessarily the case.
Rick and Morgan Can Reunite During The Walking Dead's Time Jump
After Rick was seemingly killed in an explosion (though he was actually washed downstream and rescued by Anne and a mysterious helicopter), The Walking Dead jumped forward drastically in time by six years. At no point in those six years did Rick managed to find his way back to Michonne, Judith, and his friends, which is a rather ominous indicator of his eventual fate in the Walking Dead movies.
The time jump also serves another purpose, however. Since Fear the Walking Dead didn't make the same move forward, there's still plenty of time for Morgan to make his way from Texas to wherever Rick ends up in the Walking Dead movies (which, for all we know, could actually be Texas). The Walking Dead's chief content officer, Scott Gimple, has explicitly said that Rick won't be the only familiar face in the movies, teasing that, "We're going to dig into the past and see old characters." And of all the old characters who could crop up, Morgan is the one that makes the most sense.
Related: The Walking Dead: Everything That Happened In The Time Jump
Why Rick and Morgan's Story Isn't Over Yet
Both Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lincoln and Lennie James, who plays Morgan, have implied that their joint journey isn't over yet. Speaking on the subject of why Morgan decided to track Rick down, James explained that Rick serves as a kind of anchor and a point of safety for his character:
"I think it's to do with the history of the character and the kind of the defining events in his story. I think it's to do with how he lost his family. I think it's to do with - to a greater or lesser extent - that happened in isolation. It didn't happen within a group. After he lost his wife and kids, he was alone, and when they were gone there was no one left in the world that knew him, that could prove his existence, except for Rick Grimes."
Andrew Lincoln has also emphasized the strong links between the two characters, and said that he doesn't think they've seen the last of one another. Regarding Morgan's move from The Walking Dead to Fear the Walking Dead, Lincoln said:
"There was a sort of sense, certainly with Lennie, that it’s until we meet again. It’s always been that way with Rick and Morgan. I don’t know, there’s something in the air that I feel that it’s not quite the end yet for Rick and Morgan."
Rick and Morgan's connection isn't powerful because of all the time they have spent together, but rather because of the time they have spent apart. Every time the two characters meet, it serves as a measure of how much they have changed since the last time they saw one another. When Rick was first reunited with Morgan in season 3, he had been devastated by his son Duane's death and was half-mad, living a paranoid lifestyle in a fortress of his own making. When Morgan finally caught up with Rick again at the end of season 5, it was at the exact moment that Rick became an executioner for Deanna Monroe. In both cases, one party was shocked to see what their old friend had become.
We don't know what Rick will have to endure in The Walking Dead movies, having been separated from the only family he knows with seemingly no hope of getting back to them. Neither do we know what lies ahead for Morgan in Fear the Walking Dead. However, it would be a true disappointment if two characters whose relationship has defined the arc of The Walking Dead universe were not reunited at least one more time.