The Walking Dead: Jeffrey Dean Morgan recalls iconic, improvised line in Negan’s intro scene

There’s no forgetting Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s debut as Negan on the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead, “Last Day on Earth.” He stormed onto the scene and killed both Glenn and Abraham with Lucille, his baseball bat covered in barbed wire.

As hard as the episode was for us to watch, the cast had some laughs behind the scenes. Right before Negan brutally kills Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), the hardened survivor of the zombie apocalypse tells Negan to “suck my nuts.” Apparently, that line was improvised, and Morgan couldn’t stop laughing on set.

This came out during Cudlitz’s appearance on Friday Night With the Morgans, a show where Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his family connect with people over social media during this time of social distancing. “It just was our kind of a moment that we got to have,” Morgan remembered. “And I still to this day get baseball bats to sign that you signed that say ‘suck my nuts,’ and it makes me fall on the f**king floor every time.”

He’s not wrong about the “Suck my nuts” merch. Speaking to Metro shortly after the actual episode aired back in the day, Cudlitz remembered a world inundated. “The fan reaction to it has been crazy,” he said at the time. [I]f you Google ‘suck my nuts’ and you go to images – you can get more t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, plaques, banners, everything that has “suck my nuts” all over it. I love it.”

Apparently, improvising lines on The Walking Dead is rare, so for Cudlitz to say something so iconic right off the cuff is all the more awesome. And of course, that just gave Morgan the energy he needed to get into the terrifying Negan headspace.

Even though Abraham was killed off, Michael Cudlitz is still very involved in the show. He returned in season 10 to direct Episode 7, “Open Your Eyes,” and is likely to direct more episodes going forward. And when he does, he has plans for Negan. “I want to put Negan through the wringer because it would be fun to watch, but not for revenge,” he said. Maybe just a little bit for revenge?

You can see Negan back in action when The Walking Dead returns for its belated season 10 finale later this year.

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h/t NME