The Walking Dead director on why this Carl-Negan scene was toned down

The Walking Dead director Rosemary Rodriguez has revealed that a scene from the seventh season of the show could have played out very differently, but was toned down for television. The scene in question comes in the episode “Sing Me a Song,” when Carl (Chandler Riggs) breaks into the Sanctuary on a one-man mission to kill Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) but instead gets pulled into a full tour of the community by the villain himself. While showing him around, Negan shows Carl his “wives,” including Sherry, Frankie, Amber and Tanya.

Apparently, Rodriguez was keen to follow the comics closely with this encounter, telling Undead Walking that she wanted the scene to be “little bit more explicit” than it ended up being.

She reveals that there were multiple reservations going into filming about how a scene like this should be shot. “Part of the conversation, for me — which I didn’t quite win, to be honest with you — was what they were going to be wearing,” she said. “I really wanted a reaction from him (Carl) in seeing women in really sexy… like seeing them, their cleavage, really being a little bit more explicit.”

Her vision sticks close to the comics by Robert Kirkman; this scene goes down in Issue #105.

Rodriguez thinks a scene like this would have worked well for the show. “[I]t’s so out there and not what we do,” she said. “Because I like extremes and because I’m not really afraid to dive into whatever it is, even if it’s politically incorrect or evil or dark, I just want to go as far as we can.”

In the episode, rather than the more explicit outfits Rodriguez wanted, Negan’s wives wear matching black dresses.

In the end, showrunner Scott Gimple made the final call. “I think Scott and everybody were trying to adhere to the bigger picture, and being aware of the fans and what was going to happen.”

Unsurprisingly, this isn’t the only Negan scene that stirred up some controversy. Ever since he made his debut by killing off two fan-favorite characters, he’s been the source of a lot of outrage. One time the writers might have crossed the line, however, was when Negan insulted Olivia about her weight.

In season 7, Negan breaks into Alexandria to take his half of food and supplies. When things go sideways, he insults Olivia. “I can’t be the only one to notice that you got a fat lady in charge of keeping track of rations, can I?” he asks Rick.

Olivia was played by Ann Mahoney, who recently revealed on the Talk Dead to Me podcast that once the episode was out, Scott Gimple phoneed her to apologize for the misogynistic insult. “Gimple called me and was like, ‘I just want you to know that I’m sorry about that line, but Negan’s an a—hole and so he says a—hole things,'” she remembered. “‘But none of us think of you like that. But it just kind of shows everybody what a misogynist he is, basically.'”

There have been other times The Walking Dead has come under fire, and Negan has been at the center of a lot of them. Thankfully, it looks like the villain has turned a corner in recent episodes. Let’s hope that we see more of his good side when the show returns for its season 10 finale later this year.

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