‘The Walking Dead’s David Morrissey Says He’s Not Finished with the Governor

Former Walking Dead star David Morrissey would “love” to reprise his role as the Governor because he feels the character still has “a lot more to mine.”

“I loved my experience on The Walking Dead. It was a show I’d love to go back to in any capacity,” Morrissey told Red Carpet News TV.

“I’ve often said I’d make the tea for them if they asked me, because it was a wonderful experience, and it’s a show made by fantastic people, really talented people. And you want to work with those people.”

Morrissey, who boarded the series in its third season, emerged as its primary threat when brought into conflict with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and company as the survivors attempted to settle in a prison neighboring the Governor’s strictly controlled Woodbury.

“I love the character,” Morrissey said, adding the Governor “has got more to give.”

“And I think that’s why the show gets good actors in it, because they give you a backstory, they give you real things to play,” he said. “It’s a survivalist show, but it’s something about the human relationships inside the show that really click into people, I think. And yeah, I would go back in a shot.”

Morrissey enjoyed the “complexity” of Philip Blake, who kept reanimated daughter Penny as a leashed pet before finding new and nearly redemptive purpose through the young Meghan Chambler (Meyrick Murphy) and her family, mother Lilly (Audrey Marie Anderson) and aunt Tara (Alanna Masterson).

“I think there’s a whole sense of the Governor where he’s not just out and out evil, he has his moments where he has this red mist that comes over him, but he does have a conscious. I think that whole thing with his daughter is about him being a good father,” Morrissey explained.

“He does have humanity, it’s very warped because the world is warped, but I can see the inner struggle — particularly in Season Four — the inner struggle inside him to where he morally sits. He is fighting the dark side in him a lot, particularly in Season Four.

“That’s a battle I think we all have in microcosms sometimes, but we all have it that we go, ‘Who do I listen to today? Do I listen to the good angel or the bad angel?’ And he has that. And I love that complexity of him. And his capacity for love, and then his capacity for carnage. And then I get to do lots of cool stuff as well [laughs].”

The actor turned to both creator Robert Kirkman’s comic books and the “wonderful” series of Governor-centric novels penned by Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga when crafting the live-action Governor, who he hopes to see return with a larger focus.

“I’d love to do that,” Morrissey said of a Governor-led series belonging to the growing Walking Dead Universe, soon to include movies, mini-series and other offshoots.

“As I say, I love the world, I love the genre, I love the character, so if the powers that be deemed it right to do it, I would love to.”

“Sometimes you walk away from a job, you think, ‘I’m finished with that character.’ Whereas the Governor, I don’t feel that. I think there’s a lot more to mine, really,” Morrissey added.

“I think possibly every actor that’s been on The Walking Dead could say the same, because they write so well for you. They give you fully-rounded characters. There’s no one coming in, as far as I can see, coming in and giving a few lines. There’s people coming in and they have really good, good storylines to play.”

Now in its ninth season, The Walking Dead premieres new episodes Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

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