‘The Walking Dead’: A New Side to Negan
If you were sent to 18 months of solitary confinement, would you come out the same as you went in? Well, Jeffery Dean Morgan’s Negan is about to show a whole new side of himself.
Showrunner Angela Kang told IGN some tidbits about what to expect from negan in the upcoming season 9.
“Of course Negan is still Negan — he can’t help but say things that are snarky or kind of rough, but we’re gonna see some really different emotional shades to him. He’s essentially been in solitary confinement for a year and a half since the end of last season, and one of the stories that we’re exploring is what that’s done to him,” said showrunner Angela Kang.
“So that really shifts the nature of the interactions he has. The other thing we’ll be doing this season that I’m excited about is, there was so much during the war that was mano a mano with Rick and Negan, and this year we’re gonna see some other people have some really significant interactions with him that I hope are a little different and surprising.”
In the comic books, Negan and Carl form a sort of relationship as Carl is the only one to visit him, besides Rick. These new interactions will be interesting to see play out on screen.
“I’m getting to work with some people that I haven’t worked with yet on the show, which has been really exciting,” Morgan revealed at San Diego Comic-Con.“I’ve been on the show for a couple years now, and I had a couple scenes with Norman and some with Andy, but other than that it’s been with Saviors that are all dead now,” he said. “So this year it’s kind of, I’m slowly being integrated into scenes with people I haven’t seen since I had them kneeling in front of me, which has been really interesting and fun.”
Negan is as cocky as ever saying in the season 9 trailer “You’re not saving the world, you’re just getting it ready for me.” But Morgan feels confident that Negan can find redemption.
“Look, I think that Negan probably did some things that are unforgivable in a lot of people’s eyes. I think in the world that we live in, in this apocalyptic Walking Dead world, I think you can come back from it,” Morgan said. “I don’t know how, I don’t know if, but I think first Negan has to survive what he’s going through right now — and I don’t know the what or if of that either — but there’s a different side to him certainly this year that we’re gonna see.”
We’ll get to see this different side of Negan when The Walking Dead returns with season 9 on Sunday, October 7 on AMC.
When Beth “grows up” she wants to see her creations appear on the screen and stage. In her free time, Beth blogs about her love of craft beer and writes screenplays. She received her bachelors in journalism from Youngstown State and received her masters in communication from The University of Akron. She is honored to be a part of the FanFest family.
