He’s gone from vengeful killer to mentally fractured killer to calm zen master to mentally fractured zen master.
It wasn’t the most outlandish line of speculation to go down for the U.K. actor.
So in terms of character development, it was time to either end things for good, or to put him within a completely new environment, and Scott Gimple & Co. chose to go with the latter.
Both before and after his eventual return at the end of The Walking Dead Season 5, Morgan has been through majorly tough times in the post-apocalypse, having lost his wife and son, and not ever having found any meaningful relationships to fill those voids.