The end of season 10 of The Walking Dead, “Here is Negan”, gave fans a glimpse into the life of Negan from Jeffrey Dean Morgan when the zombie apocalypse broke out, casting a very different spotlight on a character who is on the path of redemption by some In “Here’s Negan,” Morgan starred alongside his real-life partner, actress Hilarie Burton, who played Negan’s terminally ill wife, Lucille. Together, they showed us a new side of Negan. Instead of the perverse and perceptive killer we were introduced to years ago, this Negan was a dedicated and caring husband who did his best to protect his wife in a devastated and walkable world.
Check out our review of “Here’s Negan” by The Walking Dead.
We talked to Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton about this crucial flashback episode and what it was like for Burton to actually step into the shoes of a character who has been a big mystery in the series for a long time. Furthermore, now that Negan has made peace with his past and said goodbye to Lucille (both in memory and in his “bat” form), who will he be now? And what does that mean for your rivalry with Maggie?
The end of season 10 reveals a new Negan
When “Here is Negan” ends, Negan Smith of Morgan decides to return to Alexandria, rejecting the gentle exile that Carol offered him at the beginning of the episode. He knows that Maggie will probably come after him at some point, but he will not hide from his fate. Trying to save Lucille and then discovering that she had already taken her own life when he returned to the basement, “created the Negan that we know and love,” explained Morgan. “Or to know and to hate. That was the moment when Negan was born. That was when Negan Smith died and Negan was born. Going on until the end of the episode, when he has that ceremony with his staff, other than changing and completely turning his vision of life and who he is going to be, this is the first time he says goodbye to his wife. It’s really about him saying goodbye to his wife. “
“Negan is no longer running from that,” added Morgan. “I mean, whatever happens, it happens, but it will fall off swinging. It will fall on your terms. It just isn’t in a place right now where it will be alone in a cabin. It will sink swinging. Although I must be careful with that terminology. I mean, he’s not running away from Maggie or anything. I think after all that time in prison and all that thinking, I think it’s time for Negan to come back.
So, who is the Negan who appears at the end of the end of season 10? “I think he’s probably somewhere between the guy who left Winnebago and the guy who was with his wife during his last days. He’s going to fall somewhere in the middle. It will be a younger Negan. Negan 2.0. I think he will use the wisdom of the past and be a younger guy. He will not shy away from any of these bulls. “
This does not mean that the Negan we know is dead and buried, of course. As we saw during his time with The Whisperers, Negan can still be a pain in the ass. “I think he can switch to that mode when he needs to. It’s almost a survival instinct for him,” said Morgan. “It certainly was with The Whisperers. But the eight years he spent in prison, I think it certainly gives someone time for introspection and I think now he is trying to find his place in this new world among these people who are obviously not big fans. That said, I never want to walk away from Negan as Negan. He’s always there. He just has more sides to him than the one who came out of Winnebago. Like all of us. We all have different sides. “
The beginning of the end of The Walking Dead
With “Here’s Negan” in the books, there are now only 24 episodes of The Walking Dead, with the debut of the 11th season arriving on August 22. Morgan has only a few episodes from season 11, which is taking longer to shoot than the show’s normal schedule, but, as he says, the world is open to Negan. “I think there is still a lot of history left,” he said. “It’s so weird to go for what is the last year, for everyone. I only know what happens in four episodes, because I only read the first four scripts. We are taking incredibly, in a good way, for film, not just because of COVID, but because we know that this will be the last round. “
“That said, it has been very exciting. These first three episodes we shot were huge. It took us two months to shoot three episodes. We are usually five or six years old. So they are great. I don’t know how we’re going to wrap up. I don’t have a fucking idea. because now it looks like we’re opening the story instead of ending it. As far as Negan is concerned, you I have this character that now looks like a complete character and there’s so much story to tell, so we’ll see what the writers will create and what can I do with the material that was given to me. “
Negan: Origins
As Morgan explains, the idea of telling Negan’s story has been underway since he joined the series. “We had already talked about it in hundreds of different ways, whether it was going to be a miniseries, a movie or if we could somehow incorporate it into the program,” he said. “And then, when these six episodes of COVID took place, as we call them, it seemed like a decent fit to get in there on your own and be an independent.”
Likewise, having Hilarie Burton in the role of Lucille had been a common idea for a while. “I think I always said she would make a great Lucille from the start,” said Morgan. “And over the years I think that Angela [Kang, EP] and Scott [Gimple, EP] and the rest of the family met Hilarie and that helped a lot. It was a natural fit.
Burton herself had an explosion like Lucille. “Jeffrey said for years, and I even said online, ‘Lucille dibs’,” she said. “But the reality of having to play a character that validates a lot of Negan’s behavior and explains who he is was a big move. I think Negan is hurt, and his bravado and his behavior make sense when you learn his story. And it makes easier to root for him instead of how he was introduced. Because he was brought up like a real bastard. And now he’s just doing the best he can. “
“Working together was the first time in a time that the two of us just went out,” she continued. “Except it wasn’t just the two of us. It was us and as a team of 30 people around us. “
“Yes, it was like a date,” added Morgan. “We need to get away from our children a little bit. Or at least eight hours a day.”
Playing Lucille Undead
Actress Hilarie Burton didn’t just play Lucille, of course. She has to play Lucille like a walker, and in doing so she had to squirm for a long time (because Negan didn’t put it down immediately). “I loved it. Like, I really loved it, ”Burton shared. “I think the special effects department also had a good time, because normally when a cast member is up and running, it’s a sad thing, because it means that their race is ending. And we all got into it knowing it was a one-time thing. episode there was just no expectation of living forever and for me, I can’t do this kind of work. You know, I make Christmas movies and dress like an elf. So being totally zombie was definitely a starting point. we had a lot of fun with that. We were going to visit our kids between scenes and see our kids’ reaction to that. “
Naturally, however, with the walker’s extensive makeup, the walker’s extensive complications come. “When Negan reacts to Lucille like a walker, it was the first time Jeffrey saw me like this,” said Burton. “He purposely stayed away all day. And then, when he took the bag out of my head, it was the first time he saw me. It only took a while. truth plenty of time for him to make his way over to me and that bag was attracted to the moisture in my mouth. So, when you see Lucille panting like a zombie, that was really a working method, “she laughed.” I was like, ‘I bet you’re acting crazy, but I can see you because I have a bag over my head, so let’s wrap this up.’ “
A departure from The Walking Dead comics
“Here is Negan” borrows a lot from the comics, but it also deviates a little. In ways that made it one more Lucille and the Negan story, instead of just a Negan story. “The only thing that Hilarie and I were aware of going into this when they approached us about doing this is that we knew that the Lucille comic was actually relegated to a hospital bed with maybe two or three scenes,” said Morgan, “and I think about it , because of COVID and what we were able to do, the writers were able to greatly expand that relationship and change history in a way that it survives until the beginning of the apocalypse. “
“This is very different from the comics. One thing that is missing from the history of the comics is when you see Negan alone and trying to help other people. He keeps finding these people and trying to help them and basically finds out that people are stupid and that’s why he became the Negan we know. Until he made his voice heard, people were dying. So he found a system that kept people alive and became the saviors. That’s really the main difference . “
The Walking Dead will return, with its debut in the 11th season, on August 22.
Matt Fowler is an IGN writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler.