Lennie James, now a star on Fear the Walking Dead, has revealed how his former castmates on The Walking Dead reacted to him leaving the show.
Now that The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead are more overtly crossing over with one another, most famously in the case of Lennie James who left TWD and now stars on FTWD, we can probably expect a few more sad farewells between cast members as actors swap in and out of shows.
There were certainly some sad faces when news broke about James’ move to the spin-off series and James has now revealed who said what to ComicBook.com: “I think Josh McDermitt, who plays Eugene, kind of phrased it best really. He sent me a text going, ‘I’m really, really excited for you, and I’m really, really heartbroken for us,’ and he said he’s ‘sadcited.’ That was the kind of phrase, the kind of being sad and excited at the same time, and I think that was the overriding feeling that people understood what a rare opportunity it was for me, and what it meant as the possibilities for Morgan as a character, which was equally as important. But although it wasn’t a death, it was me leaving the show, me leaving the family. In fact, Khary [Payton], I think it was, he said, ‘It’s like you’re going off to college. It’s like you’re still going to be part of the family, but you’re not going to be living with us anymore.’
“Everybody found a way of expressing something like that about being happy for me, but being sad at the loss, and I think that was people’s overriding opinion. There were a couple of people who kind of weren’t the main, who were just straight up angry, who were just straight up, ‘No. No. You can’t go. You have to say,’ but that would happen, and that happens whenever we lose characters who have become our kind of every day. So, yeah, that was the overriding feeling.”
Well, now that you know how the actors felt about his exit, how are you feeling about Morgan’s arrival on Fear the Walking Dead? Has he been a good fit or would you rather he had stayed put on the parent show?
“The first half of season four began with one figure huddled around a campfire, and ended with nine. Characters who started their journeys in isolation collided with each other in unexpected ways and found themselves in one of the last places they ever expected to be…together. In the back half of the season they will explore who they are now – as individuals and as part of the greater group – and how they will forge ahead. They will find themselves pitted against new adversaries – human, walker, and even nature itself. Theirs will be a journey wrought with danger, love, heartbreak, loss, and ultimately, hope.”
Fear the Walking Dead season 4 airs on Sunday nights in the States and on Monday nights in the UK.
