LOS ANGELES, March 25 (UPI) — “The Walking Dead” fans should expect Negan to have a shocking introduction on the AMC series.
Robert Kirkman, who authors “The Walking Dead” comics and executive produces the show, discussed the character in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Jeffery Dean Morgan will debut as Negan on the Season 6 finale April 3.
“Negan is kind. Negan is respectful. Negan is psychotic. Negan is ruthless,” Kirkman said of the villain. “This is a very nuanced character that has a lot of different shades to him … I think he’s unlike anything anybody’s experienced on ‘The Walking Dead’ thus far.”
“This is a guy who, much like Rick (Andrew Lincoln), has survived through horrendous things and has developed a system, a way of life, that works for him,” he added. “This is a character that Rick is not necessarily going to have an advantage over.”
Morgan will make a big splash on the finale before being upped to a series regular in Season 7. In the Image Comics series, Negan is the tyrannical leader of the Saviors survivors, whose weapon of choice is a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.
“We’re very confident that we found a way to keep [his introduction] as unexpected in the show as it was in the comic,” Kirkman teased. “So it should be just as intense, just as heartbreaking, and just as shocking.”
Morgan is known for playing John Winchester on “Supernatural,” Denny Duquette on “Grey’s Anatomy” and Jason Crouse on “The Good Wife.” The actor referred to Negan as “the real deal” on Late Night with Seth Meyers in January, calling the character a “game changer.”
The Walking Dead premiered in 2010 and airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
