‘The Walking Dead’ Is Getting Into Negan’s Tragic Backstory

One of the issues with The Walking Dead so far this season is that Negan, despite Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s delightful scenery-chewing performance, is a one-note character. He’s stereotypically evil, the Big Bad Wolf outside Alexandria’s door. All we know about him is that he formed the Saviors, and he and his followers will do anything, including playing the world’s most morbid round of “Eeny Meeny Miny Mo,” to maintain control. What was Negan like before the outbreak? Was he always evil? What kind of name is Negan, anyway? These are questions that The Walking Dead needs to answer. Being bad for bad’s sake isn’t interesting — there should be a reason.

Of course, readers of Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead comics know all about the tragic “Here’s Negan” backstory (which you can read about here — it involves swearing, affairs, cancer, and baseball bats; all and all, it’s pretty depressing). Before season seven, Dean Morgan promised that viewers will “find out how Negan has come to be who he is. We’re going to get some backstory very quickly on how the Saviors operate and how Negan operates.” But it might take awhile to get there. Showrunner Scott Gimple told Yahoo TV that The Walking Dead will shed light on Negan’s history… eventually.

“I do believe yes, it’s in the future. You know, I’m always careful about this, [because] things can absolutely change,” Gimple said. “There’s a loose plan in place I have.” He added, “I take that ‘Here’s Negan’ story as the backstory. There’s some aspects of it that will probably be cool [on the show]… In the future, you will see some stuff from that. Might need to get Damon Lindelof to do it. It might be rather Lost-ian, but we’re talking a good while away.”

Negan is sticking around for awhile, so The Walking Dead can take its time — but not too long — before revealing he was a Smoke Monster all along.

(Via Yahoo TV)

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