After years of will-they-won’t-they, AMC has finally decided to unite its two worlds of The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead in the ultimate crossover show for 2018.
However, with Lennie James’ Morgan Jones being the unlikely candidate to swap the main show for Fear, some fans are left puzzled at why Scott Gimple and his creative team have made this decision. There were more obvious choices, other fan-favorite characters we’d like to see more of, or just options that made more logistical sense. With this ins mind, here are 5 Characters Who Would Have Been Better Picks Than Morgan.
Related: Watch Lennie James’ First Day on Fear the Walking Dead Set
5. Abraham Ford
Who isn’t a little bummed that Big Red won’t be back combing his tash on Fear, because It looked like an almost certainty that Michael Cudlitz was tooling up for an appearance as the crossover character? Season 4 of Fear is conveniently heading to Texas next, which just so happens to be where Abraham was before teaming up with Rosita and Eugene.
Even with Abe’s arrival in season 4 of The Walking Dead, the muscular military man had a history shrouded in mystery. He was clearly handy in a fight, wore his uniform with honor, and had some idea about the outbreak, but we never got to find out much more. Becoming a fan-favorite character, Abraham’s head-bashing in season 7 premiere gave one of the most heart-breaking deaths to grace the show, while some felt he went before his time.
So, sending Abraham back to Texas for a blast from the past seemed like the easiest way for Fear The Walking Dead to take a crossover. Frankly, it is a mystery why Cudlitz isn’t coming back.
4. Madison Clark
Love or hate Kim Dickens’ miserable matriarch, there is no denying that Madison Clark is the de facto lead of Fear The Walking Dead. With that long-standing theory that Madison is a relative of Rick Grimes, it doesn’t take a genius to spot the similarities between her and the somber sheriff. As friends or enemies, Rick and Madison would have a very interesting dynamic if they ever crossed paths. Unafraid to kill to protect her family, a Rick and Madison meeting would surely go hand in hand with a tense face-off and some seriously good TV.
The sister show has always struggled to live up to the hype of TWD, so one way to get more people interested in Fear would be to show long-term The Walking Dead fans what other interesting characters Robert Kirman’s world has to offer. There is also the possibility that Madison could become a villain over time, maybe even a slow descent into becoming the big bad – Alpha. A shaved-head Dickens would be one hell of a shocker as The Walking Dead‘s next bloodthirsty brute.
3. Michonne
The katana-wielding badass may be the current Mrs. Grimes, but it is easy to forget Michonne’s mysterious arrival into TWD‘s world. Introduced at the very end of season 2, she was a shadowy figure complete with reanimated walkers on chains. As a hardened survivor, exploring what made Michonne into such a tough nut would’ve been an interesting expansion of her patchy backstory.
While she has now mellowed into more of a maternal figure, always remember the brutal Michonne who stabbed the Governor in the eye with a shard of glass. Also, originally shown with an aversion to babies, it would be interesting to explore more of Michonne’s past with her son Andre. Just like AMC’s presumed reasons for picking Morgan as the crossover character thanks to his complicated emotional past, Michonne would easily fit that bill too. Finally, with Danai Gurira being easily one of the show’s best actors, why wouldn’t fans want to see more of her decapitating walkers and taking on the zombie apocalypse as a one-woman show?
2. Victor Strand
It is hard not to love a good anti-hero, and Fear The Walking Dead just wouldn’t be the same without Victor Strand. The shrewd manipulator, there has always been a sense of something good bubbling under the surface of Strand. However, from his controlling days aboard the Abigail, Strand has found a whole new world to manipulate now that his feet are on dry land.
Like Andrew Lincoln’s Rick, Strand has no problem doing what has to be done for the greater good, ultimately pushing him into a morally gray area. Now that Troy has taken a hammer to the skull, Victor is arguably the most interesting character currently on Fear. Victor would be a prime candidate to survive the early days of the outbreak, only to butt heads with Rick in the future of TWD.
Sticking with the motto of “embrace the madness,” Victor’s skillset is perfect for the more advanced years of The Walking Dead and a landscape where the walkers are slowly taking over. That being said, unlike most of his Fear counterparts, Strand is yet to actually kill anyone (directly). You can only imagine what he would be like if we picked up with him a few years down the line as a cool and collected killing machine.
1. Andrea
Bear with us on this one – if you thought Morgan was a controversial choice, you ain’t head nothing yet. Heading back to the early days of The Walking Dead (under Frank Darabont), Laurie Holden’s blonde bombshell was tipped for greatness. Promised an eight-season arc heading to the show’s originally proposed end date, Holden was set to make Andrea as much of a key character as her comic book counterpart. However, with Darabont leaving after season 1, things took a turn for the worse.
Everyone remembers Andrea’s lackluster season 3 arc, which saw her unwillingly defect to the Woodbury community and shack up with David Morrissey’s villainous Governor. With Holden’s card marked by another change of showrunner – Glen Mazzara was being replaced by Scott Gimple – the character bowed out with a whimper instead of the bang in “Welcome to the Tombs.” A bitten Andrea was set to turn, giving a merciful Michonne no other choice to shoot her friend.
While there is seemingly no denying that Andrea is dead, the fact that she died off-screen could technically give the character the option of a miraculous resurrection. Stranger things have happened in TV, and can you just imagine a redemptive storyline where AMC gets to write the wrongs of one of The Walking Dead‘s most tragically wasted characters?
Who would you like to have see the crossover character? Sound off in the comments below!
