The Walking Dead Cast Talks About Negan

Andrew Lincoln

Image Source: AMC

"Just get ready, man. Just get ready," Lincoln teased in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I read the script and I went, 'This is the greatest entrance ever written.'" That's great and all, but it doesn't exactly bode well for our group of survivors. "We've been talking about this guy for a long time. It's probably the most important casting since Rick, really. Everybody needs a hero, but I think they probably need a really good baddie even more. Negan's incredibly charismatic. In this deranged society, there is a kind of logic to the way that he is running the place. He runs a tight ship, I'll tell you that much. I'm actually very impressed. I doff my cap to this man!" Lincoln went on to call the finale "incredibly brilliant and well constructed . . . It's really dark, man. It's really dark."

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Chandler Riggs

Image Source: AMC

Right after the midseason premiere aired, Riggs spoke out about Negan's impending arrival to E! News: "Negan's pretty messed up. He's not cool in the comics because he's such an annoyance because he just takes half of everything from you and there's nothing you can do about it because he doesn't have a problem with killing all of you . . . I think it's going to be the same way in the show because there's nothing that can stand up against him because he has an army of Saviors on his side that will easily take down any single thing they want to."

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Lauren Cohan

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"We've seen baddies in this show," Cohan told us in January. "We saw the Governor, this charming sociopath, basically. Negan is an interesting character . . . there is a rhyme to his reason, it just doesn't happen to be a rhyme that's very good for our group. I can say that. He runs his town with a very tight rope, or with very tight reins. Yeah, so it's scary . . . [he's] the worst yet."

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Steven Yeun

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Yeun is in a unique position, as his character is brutally murdered by Negan in the comics. Strangely, he seemed pretty amped about the villian in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "For me, his arrival is awesome," he said. "We've been waiting for this person for a long time, and in the comic books, he in a way brings a level of stakes that are kind of unmatched. And so, for me, for Negan to come into the show is, to say nothing less, f*cking awesome . . . I know people are going to always go, 'Negan kills Glenn in the comics,' but rest assured that we don't necessarily do what's in the comics. There's a clear divide in the way we tell a story on television, and the way that story is told in the comics, because it has to be. And everybody will have to see what happens, but we definitely tell our story in the way that television should be told."

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Norman Reedus

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Back in January, Reedus coyly addressed how the existing characters will deal with Negan to Empire. "There's going to be a fight. I won't tell you who, when and where, but I can promise you a fight. All of us are about to clash with that motherf*cker. There's a lot of turmoil in the second half of season six." Boy, is he right.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reedus more explicitly talked about the villain: "It's the most hardcore episode we've ever shot. I couldn't speak after I watched it. And, of course, I knew what was happening, and what was going to happen, and who was involved, but I got to tell you, I couldn't speak for like an hour. And then I just was bombarded with phone calls on my drive home. But that was a rough, rough, rough cut. I will say that it might be the best episode we've ever shot of the show."

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Creator Robert Kirkman

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Kirkman spoke out about the new villain after he is mentioned on a November episode. "This character Negan, whose name was mentioned last night is a huge threat — he's a huge part of the comic book and he's going to be introduced into the show very soon," he told The New York Times. "That's going to change things in a really radical and terrifying way, so we've got that to look forward to."

In January, Kirkman delved into a greater description of the character in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: "Negan is kind of an atomic bomb that's going to be dropped on the show and the show will probably never be the same after that."

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Producer Gale Anne Hurd

Image Source: Getty / VALERIE MACON

"Anyone who loves Negan from the comic books will literally be cheering," Hurd told Us Weekly in March. "They won't be able to sit down at home or wherever they are. I think they'll stand up and cheer . . . He's a completely different kind of character than we've had in the past, and honestly, I cannot imagine someone more perfect than Jeffrey Dean Morgan to bring him to life . . . [Negan is] formidable, but he's incredibly charismatic, and he acknowledges who he is and what he expects of people . . . [he] changes the whole dynamic for everyone on the show."

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Showrunner Scott Gimple

Image Source: Getty / Noam Galai

"He's unlike anybody we've seen on The Walking Dead, and further, I think he's unlike anyone we've seen," Gimple told Entertainment Weekly. "He is a singular character, I think, of the last 10 to 20 years of popular culture. . . . Through another lens, he's not a bad guy at all in the comic. He does some horrible things, but our people do some horrible things. He is, though, this unrepentant a-hole. He is somebody who is the ultimate bully."

When asked if the show's storyline will veer from that of the comic books, Gimple clarified: "Whatever it is, it's really just all in service to being faithful to the comic book inasmuch as one can. That's always going to be relatively subjective as to what that means. But taking inspiration from the moments of the comic book and playing them out to the ends of what it can be, it's all just like taking that moment from the book and figuring out a way to turn it up to get those feelings that it gave you and those emotions that it gave you that much more . . . It might be wildly different, but it's all to get the same sort of feelings that you got when you read them. So will it be different? Absolutely. Will it be the same thing? Absolutely."

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Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Image Source: Getty / Taylor Hill

Finally, the man himself has teased his upcoming character. "The character itself is going to be as close as humanly possible," he said, speaking with Entertainment Weekly. Morgan also appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers, and the host was able to squeeze some good information out of him. Not only does Morgan call Negan a "game changer," he also says he's "the biggest ass in the world." Can't wait to meet him!

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