The two biggest shows on television have a lot to live up to. Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss called season six “the best one we’ve done,” while everyone associated with The Walking Dead has been praising Negan, who’s due to arrive in the season finale, as “one of the greatest villains ever created in TV.” Meanwhile, the cast of Ray Donovan, Showtime’s Sunday night offering, is like, “Watch when you can. We get it.”
So, we know we should be excited for Negan — but why? He’s likely to off a major character, which is the kind of major shakeup The Walking Dead could use (and no, Denise doesn’t count), but Steven Yeun didn’t really explain why it’s “f*cking awesome” he’s coming. Let showrunner Scott Gimple try:
The worst kind of bullies in high school, and junior high, and elementary school, and kindergarten, pre-school, and the womb were the bullies that were funny. That was the worst because the bullies that were funny were show people. I’m not going to say show men because there are a lot of girl bullies in school, too. They were funny and yet they were awful… And Negan is the ultimate version of that bully. And he is an incredible strategist. He can often appear capricious. He is pure id. He is this force of nature. He’s charismatic. A lot of villains on shows and comics and everything, it’s like, “Oh they’re the villain that you love to hate.” I think Negan is the villain that you hate to love. But you just love him. And he does some horrible things, but he has a reason for them. (Via)
So, Negan is Biff? Got it. Gimple later said that Negan isn’t a “psychopath,” and that he “actually does have some empathy and he does have a system and he does have, in some ways, even reason… He’s going to terrify you, but he’s really going to make you laugh.” To paraphrase Tom Waits (and some Dutch guy), in the land of the Walkers, the man with the baseball bat is king.
(Via EW)
