With casting news of Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, Supernatural) taking up the role of Negan on The Walking Dead get ready for AMC to be pushed as far as they can.
For those of you who have not read the comic Negan is the leader of a group of survivors in the Washington, DC area called the Saviors, who take over other communities in the area for resources in return for their protection against The Walkers. This sounds pretty rough, but we have see characters on the show and in the book that take advantage of others. This is not the where the push comes. Negan himself is a unique character and is more of a sociopath than The Governor, who had psychotic tendencies and often engaged in emotional outbursts. Negan is a brutal and foul-mouthed character who has a twisted sense of humor who carries baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire he named Lucille.
In a recent interview Jeffrey Dean Morgan addressed the concern of bringing Negan from page to screen:
“Look, it’s a speed bump. I’m not going to say it’s an issue because we’re working on it,” Morgan said. “We’re going to push AMC – the plan is to push them as far as they can because it’s who Negan is.”
With AMC a basic cable network there are certain boundaries the show will have to adhere too. Jeffrey Dean Morgan went on to say:
“It’s our intention that this character is going to leap off the pages of the comic book. It’s very important that that’s who he is… Negan is a guy that you want to keep as true as possible, and that would be how I want to play him as well.”
Negan will make his screen debut on the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead returns to TV on February 14, 2016 on AMC.
