Summary
Now, with the return ofThe Walking Dead: Dead Cityseason 2 finally making its way to the small screen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan discusses Negan’s long journey on the iconic AMC series as well as its spin-off, revealing that the beloved character could hang up his boots sooner rather than later.
DespiteThe Walking Dead’s lackluster storylines towards its latter seasons, its zombie-filled universe hasn’t stopped spinning. FromFear the Walking Dead, Tales of the Walking Dead,andThe Walking Dead: World BeyondtoThe Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, andThe Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,many characters became so beloved that they earned their own place in the franchise. However, even though many incredibly complex characters have walked through the show’s doors over the years, Negan is certainly a man who can’t be avoided, regardless of his terrible actions. Ever since he made his debut back in Season 6, he’s always been regarded as the show’s main antagonist due to his twisted, violent nature and sickly dark sense of humor. Even though he shouldn’t be considered a good guy, he has tried to redeem himself for his past actions, which ismore than many “villains” have done inThe Walking Dead, although it’s fair to say that most of them are dead. It’s hard to imagine a world without Negan in it, but Morgan believes that he’s coming dangerously close to retiring his character’s beloved barbed wire-covered baseball bat and iconic leather jacket.
Talking toVariety, 59-year-old Jeffrey Dean Morgan said that he is approaching 10 years in the franchise, stating that he “feels like I am one of the veterans now,” alongside Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Danai Gurira (Michonne), Lauren Cohan (Maggie), Melissa McBride (Carol), and Norman Reedus (Daryl). While gushing about getting his handprints on the Cannes Walk of Fame, which he describes as “an incredible honor,” Morgan was asked how it felt to be heading into his tenth year playingNegan inThe Walking Deaduniverse and what his future plans for the iconic character were.Morgan said thatTWDhas been a huge part of his life for such a long time that he couldn’t envision himself saying goodbye to Negan but did acknowledge that he wasn’t getting any younger and he was now “getting dangerously close” to the moment where he’d hang his boots up.
“I feel like I’ve earned my stripes. 10 years is a long time. This is not an easy show to do in any way, mentally and certainly physically, so I’m amazed by the fact that I’m still able to pull off my part of it.”
Morgan goes on to recall that writer and producer ofThe Walking Dead, Scott M. Gimple, told him that Robert Kirkman originally wrote the series with slow walkers because they are “defeatable.” “It shouldn’t be a huge pain to kill slow walking walkers. But in order to defeat them, you have to work together, and the problem is that people don’t have the ability to work together, and that is really the series, and every iteration of ‘The Walking Dead’ is about the fact that people can’t get along. It’s a good conversation starter.”
However,Morgan very nearly wasn’t cast as Negan.Matthew Lillard, who has appeared in a total of sixScreammovies and is set to return inScream 7,was once almost cast as the villainous character. Apparently, Robert Kirkman liked the idea of theScreamactor taking on the role of Negan so much that he later admitted that when he later saw Morgan’s face on merch for the series, he still thought that Lillard’s face should have been there.
