Fans are pretty confused about the latest news that Morgan is going to be the crossover character from The Walking Dead who appears on Fear the Walking Dead. Fans love Morgan and are excited to see Lennie James even more. But it’s unclear how the showrunners are going to make it work between the two show’s timelines. How does Morgan have time to travel all the way to see the characters in Fear? And why? Below, we take a look at all the facts and determine how this can possibly work.
The Distance Between King County, Georgia and Austin, Texas Is About 963 Miles
Google MapsKing County to Austin
Fear the Walking Dead is currently filming in Austin, Texas and that’s where Lennie James will be filming his first scenes. That doesn’t mean the show is actually taking place in Austin — it might be in another part of Texas. But for the purposes of this article, will look at the mileage as if it were in Austin. It could be a bit closer or a lot farther away, depending on the location.
Morgan spent most of his time in King County, Georgia. There are 963 miles between King County and Austin. According to Google, that would be a 14 hour drive or a 303 hour walk. (Of course, first you’d have to acquire a car with enough gas. Then you’d have to find empty roads. And then you’d have to have great conditions where walkers and people didn’t slow you down or stop you.)
Or it’s a 303 hour walk. That’s 12.5 days if you somehow managed to walk nonstop without ever sleeping. If you walked 12 hours a day, that’s about 25 days of walking if you didn’t encounter any walkers that slowed you down.
Morgan’s Timeline: He Was in King County in Season 1 and Season 3 of ‘The Walking Dead’
We know Morgan’s whole backstory. When could he have gone across the country? #TheWalkingDead #StoptryingtomakeFearhappen
Morgan spends most of his time in King County, Georgia. In Season 1, Morgan was in King County when Rick woke up. He, his son Duane, and his wife Jenny had left their home and traveled to Atlanta at the government’s urging. But they ended up having to take shelter in someone else’s home, and his wife was bitten. When Rick found him, his son was with him, and his wife had just turned into a walker. She kept revisiting the home they had holed up in. So the last time Rick saw Morgan in Season 1, he was in King County.
The only time Rick saw Morgan in the Season 3 episode “Clear,” Morgan was still in King County. He talked about how his son had been bitten by a walker. He had basically gone crazy after that. It didn’t seem like he had traveled very far between those two times.
After “Clear,” Morgan continued killing people. At some point along the way, he ran into Eastman, who was in Atlanta. (The backstory is shared in Season 6 “Here’s Not Here.”)
After this, chronologically, Morgan appears in “No Sanctuary” in Season 5, hiking to Terminus (in Georgia). (It’s interesting to note that there are Terminus locations in real life in Atlanta, Georgia, so that’s likely near Terminus in The Walking Dead.)
Near Gabriel’s church, he finds a map to Washington, D.C. and heads there instead. In “Conquer,” he hasn’t quite made it to D.C., and he runs into Daryl and Aaron and goes back to Alexandria instead. Alexandria is in Alexandria, Virginia.
Morgan Traveled from Georgia to Alexandria, Which Is About 619 Miles
Google MapsGeorgia to Alexandria
So in Season 5, we see Morgan hiking to Terminus, which is in Georgia. Then he heads off to Washington, D.C., but stops off early in Alexandria. According to Google Maps, the distance from Atlanta to Alexandria is about 619 miles or a 205 hour walk (that is, if you’re walking without breaks and any need to slow down.)
For Morgan to get to Austin, Texas, he would have walked about 963 miles, which is roughly 1/3 longer than he traveled from Georgia to Alexandria. It’s up to you whether you think that’s possible. If he was able to travel 619 miles on foot in a relatively short period of time, is it more unbelievable to think he did the same thing before?
Well, it does stretch the imagination because he didn’t just travel one way. He traveled 963 miles to Texas and then 963 miles back to Georgia.
Rick Has Woken Up in Fear the Walking Dead’s Timeline
TELL FEAR THEY CAN’T HAVE OUR MORGAN
Most estimates tell us that last season, Fear the Walking Dead took place around the time Rick had woken up in The Walking Dead’s timeline. We know that the pilot of Fear took place to coincide with the beginning of the global outbreak. We also know that in The Walking Dead, Rick woke up about four to five weeks after the outbreak, according to Robert Kirkman. In fact, showrunner Dave Erickson said that Fear started right around the time Rick was shot and fell into a coma.
By the end of the first half of Season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead, we were getting “very close” to the time that Rick woke up in Georgia, Erickson said. So last season of Fear the Walking Dead should have taken place right around the time that Rick was waking up or even past that point. In fact, one Fear the Walking Dead fan posted on Reddit during Season 3 that we were right at the time that Rick was waking up, according to their calculations. According to the fan’s timeline, the day that Madison offered to go with Troy to investigate the outpost in Season 3 was around Day 41.
This means that it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility for Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead to take place right after Rick leaves Morgan in Georgia in Season 1, or even after Rick sees Morgan in “Clear” if there’s a bit of a time jump.
Possible Times Morgan Went to Texas
Quick question: How on Earth is the crossover with Morgan going to work? Filling in the time that we didn’t see him?
#TheWalkingDead #FearTWD
So here’s what we’re left with, as far as possible times that Morgan went to Texas.
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- Between Season 1 and “Clear” Season 3: This really depends on when his son died, because we know that happened in King County. Did he leave King County, travel to Texas, and then back King County?
- Between “Clear” Season 3 and Meeting Eastman: Sometime between seeing Rick while he was crazy in Season 3 in King County and then meeting Eastman near Atlanta, Morgan might have traveled to Texas. It’s still tough to fit, because he needs time to train with Eastman, and it seems like that took a long time.
- Between Meeting Eastman and Arriving in Terminus in Season 5: Another possibility is that he traveled to Texas after getting “healed” by Eastman. He wanted to find and help people. Maybe before traveling to Terminus (also in Georgia), he traveled to Texas and back.
There are only two other possibilities, but we’ve been given no reason to believe either of these are true:
- Fear the Walking Dead will jump forward in time and he will run into them in “present day” or in the future. This will leave no questions about the timeline or weird ways of fitting him in.
- Fear the Walking Dead will have a flashback before the zombie outbreak, and that’s when we’ll see Morgan in Texas.
Honestly, unless we have a flashback or a time jump, there’s no easy way it seems to fit Morgan’s trip to Texas into the timeline unless he finds a car. If Morgan gets a car and has nothing get in his way during the trip, then maybe he can make the trip more easily. But what would compel him to go to Texas? Maybe he allies himself with a group for a while, or he ticks off the wrong person and is taken prisoner.
Some fans have thought that The Walking Dead might have a time jump before this season is over. If that happens, maybe Fear the Walking Dead will have a similar time jump. That would certainly leave room for Morgan to travel to Texas. But then we also have to resolve why Morgan would go to Texas.
What do you think? What is the easiest way to fit Morgan into the Fear the Walking Dead timeline? Let us know in the comments below.