Home Entertainment THE WALKING DEAD casts Jeffrey Dean Morgan as villain Negan

THE WALKING DEAD casts Jeffrey Dean Morgan as villain Negan

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So you may have heard that a certain beloved character on The Walking Dead may have been killed off recently? Judging by the title to this article you would think that this new story has nothing to do with that “dead” character. And you would be right. Sort of. To explain, I need to talk about that character which means that if you haven’t seen the third episode of the show’s sixth season yet, then you better turn back now because there will be…

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THR is reporting that the hit AMC zombie-drama is adding Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, The Losers) to its cast to take on the role of Negan, one of the most infamous villains in Robert Kirkman’s original comic book. This is a character that fans have been expecting – or is that dreading? – to show up in the TV series adaptation for a while now. To put it lightly, Negan is a monster that makes past villain the Governor look like Mother Theresa in comparison. The primary villain since he’s introduction in the comics three years ago, Negan is an uber-violent, physically powerful madman who just so happens to also be a cold and calculating commander, and who has an equally vicious army around him at all times. Oh and a barb wire wrapped baseball bat named Lucille. And it was his use of Lucille that would lead to one of the comics’ most shocking moments.

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But now I have to backtrack to that recent episode of the series, where we seemingly witnessed the death of longtime series stalwart Glenn (Steven Yeung). There’s been lots of speculation as to whether Glenn is really dead or not – personally, I don’t think so – which is obviously what showrunner Scott Gimple wants. Because after all this back and forth, Gimple can then reveal Glenn to be alive to much fanfare. And then kill him for real in an even more brutal fashion.

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See in the comic books’ landmark 100th issue, Negan beats Glenn to a dead bloody pulp with Lucille. And that would be exactly the type of twisted unexpected thing this show loves doing to its audience. We’ll probably have to wait a little bit longer to see whether this actually plays out like that in the TV series as well, as it’s being reported that Morgan will join the show as a guest star in the season six finale, before becoming a regular in season seven.

Morgan has certainly shown all the tools and traits needed to portray a character like Negan, who is equally as beastly as he is charming, so I’m really intrigued to see his take on the character. It’s reported that Morgan beat out Matt Dillon, Garret Dillahunt and Timothy Olyphant, who all tested for the role as well, so he clearly had to prove himself to get it.

Gimple previously told THR that introducing Negan would be “challenging” because of his extreme character, but that they would definitely find a way to do it.

“There’s a particular story in that arc that I’m very excited for. But because we know where we’re going, we have some opportunities to play around with it and put some things in that will lead up to [Negan and Alexandria] in different ways, yet fulfill the story Robert told to the nth degree by utilizing some slightly different approaches: lineups and timelines and the whole nine yards.”

The Walking Dead is currently on its fifth out of seven episodes, before it takes a mid-season break.

 

Last Updated: November 12, 2015

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