Fans of AMC’s The Walking Dead have just been introduced to Negan, the baseball bat-wielding, black-hearted pragmatist that everyone loves to hate. Those who have read the comic know that Negan’s horrific deeds are justified by a set of rules to keep his people and those in his thrall in line. Rules are important to Negan, and although he strictly enforces them by mutilating his followers or bashing in the skulls of those who cross him in front of their friends and family, he’s no savage. In fact, his gregarious personality could offer clues as to who Negan was before the sh*t went down.
Yes, Negan is an awful human. A monster, even. But he’s also someone who has brought up a large amount of survivors under his dark watch, well fed and safe. Granted, the methods he uses to keep them fed and safe are by offering “protection” to other small communities for half of their goods, but no one can deny that Negan isn’t a man of his word. Before the apocalypse, you might even buy a car with an extended warranty from him. He probably has a strong handshake.
The man playing Negan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, offered some insight to Negan’s past on a conference call with The Hollywood Reporter, which transcribed the actor’s take on Negan’s backstory, and it could be spot-on.
“I talked to Robert Kirkman after we did Talking Dead, and he is doing the backstory of Negan right now. But whether or not — or when — we see that, and I hope we do, I can’t answer that. But hopefully we’ll find out more as we go.
I approach [Negan] … like he used to be a used-car salesman. That’s what I know, and there’s not a lot beyond that. … He’s a car salesman who has survived as long as Rick and his gang, so what has he done to get there?”
We know that Negan and his trusty baseball bat “Lucille” will be getting a 48-page backstory over the next year via Image+, but we don’t know if Negan’s past before the apocalypse will be touched upon. Hopefully more light is shed on this bad guy, because like any good villain, his motivations were justified in his mind, and he did what he had to in order to survive. Remember – you could say from certain points of view that Rick and his crew are evil. Hell, from certain points of view the Jedi are evil. Negan might be a good guy.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
