Season Eight was indisputably a turning point in The Walking Dead's history, being the point in which several cast members left from Chandler Riggs and Steven Ogg to other cast members that would then leave after their contracts ended to Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan. Some of these actors wanted to leave the show while others did not, one of them being Lennie James as Morgan.
Morgan Jones was written out of the main show after Season Eight and brought into the Fear the Walking Dead spinoff. That decision had mixed results, with Season Four taking a nosedive in ratings and strong criticism from fans for its derivative plots while more recent seasons have been better acclaimed and Morgan's character on the show has gotten steadily better.
However I personally feel that the show badly misused this character. Aside from Andrew Lincoln, I would consider Lennie James to be the best and strongest actor in the entire Walking Dead franchise and he really loves playing the character of Morgan. Sending him off to be the new lead of an already existing spinoff series that was meant to be more standalone and as a prequel to the main show seemed really counter-productive and has ruined the originality and appeal of Fear.
I feel that there were better ways of handling his character that could've had a much greater impact on the franchise for the better and wanted to discuss them here. Let me know in the comments whether you agree or disagree with any of them and what you feel should've been done with Morgan's character;
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Option One - Morgan could've been killed off in Season Eight instead of Carl, and his death could've inspired Rick into sparing Negan as a result of Morgan's earlier preachings about second chances and life being like a circle. It was Morgan who encouraged Rick to spare Daniel from the Kingdom and he who pointed out that him sparing Owen the Wolf led to him saving Denise which led to her saving Carl's life. Morgan's death would've had a strong everlasting impact on Rick and he would have wanted to honour his friend's beliefs. Morgan was the one who actually built the cell that Negan resided in and this would've just been well done poetic writing. Killing off Morgan as the big death in Season Eight could've then kept Carl alive, thereby undoing much of the backlash from fans for straying from the comics too much and keeping Carl on the show.
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Option Two - Morgan could've been kept on the main show after Season Eight as either the main lead once Andrew Lincoln left or as one of the main leads alongside Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride. After Carl's death, he and Rick were the only original characters still alive from the pilot episode and keeping him would've kept a good connection to the beginning of the show and a sense of synchronicity. Lennie James is also a great actor and with the better writing of Angela Kang, Morgan could've become a great character again without Scott Gimple hampering him down.
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Option Three - Morgan could've had his own spinoff, either a show or a movie series. Sending Morgan to Fear meant causing a time jump that was really unpopular with fans and led the actor who played Nick to leave the show. If Morgan had just gotten his own spinoff and Fear was kept as a prequel, the actor who played Nick likely wouldn't have left and the showwriter's original plans for Fear could've continued without interruption, and the original good quality of Fear would never have been lost. Morgan then could've helped expand the series with his own spinoff, either another show or a movie series either in place of Rick's movie or alongside Rick's movie, or even star alongside Andrew Lincoln in his movie. All in all, these moves could've helped expand the franchise greatly, keep the quality of Fear great, kept Nick on Fear and given Morgan his own stardom without diminishing the spotlight or quality of other shows.
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