Jeffrey Dean Morgan explains why Negan leaves on The Walking Dead

After a bit of a break, The Walking Dead returned this past weekend for its midseason premiere, which came complete with the twists and turns we all expect from this show. To wit: in the aftermath of their battle against the Reapers, Maggie agreed to let them go…until she changed her mind and killed them all save one. The scene sort of resembled the introduction of Negan back in season 6, where he lined up the members of Rick’s group and killed two of them. Maggie was even wearing colors reminiscent of what Negan wore in that iconic scene.

None of that was lost on actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who talked to Insider about why Negan decided to leave the group after witnessing this. Basically, he figures Maggie is going to do the same thing to him sooner or later, given that he murdered her husband Glenn. “It’s not ever gonna be over,” Morgan said. “And I think him leaving is sort of the only way that anyone’s gonna find peace.”

"I don’t know that anything that Maggie does is surprising Negan at this point. I think that they’ve kind of been on their journey this year and spent a lot of time together and I think he knows that there is a side to her that is pretty fucking dark. I don’t know that he’s completely shocked at who this new Maggie is at all. He’s been dealing with her for a while on a one-on-one basis. So he knows kinda, I think, what to expect from her."

Negan will return to The Walking Dead

That said, Negan will be back at some point. And that’s good, because the show is in its final season. “I can tell you that Negan’s gonna walk off and when he reappears, he’s gonna have a mysterious friend with him,” Morgan hinted. “We will find out more then.”

In the comics, Negan leaves the group to live in isolation after realizing he’ll never really be a part of it. Author Robert Kirkman explores some of what he does in this period in the one-shot comic Negan Lives! Might AMC adapt that story for the screen in the remainder of the season?

Lauren Cohan talks Maggie’s choices on The Walking Dead

Turning to Maggie, would she have killed Negan if he stayed? Actor Lauren Cohan shared her take to Entertainment Weekly, although she avoided giving a firm answer.

“I think the writers have done such an excellent job this season of introducing the hurdle for each of the characters that we will battle all of season 11, because right at the beginning I say to him, ‘It never leaves my mind,'” Cohan said. “But the fact for Maggie is that once you let yourself take that one step further into the dark side, how much harder is it going to be to come back, and are you the person that you want to be?”

"And not just the person that you want to be, because I don’t think we completely have that luxury, but how do you stop it then? So it takes everything in her control and it is this constant balancing of impulses to not just kill him. How could she not? How could you face the person every single day that did that?"

You can see what happens next as new episodes of The Walking Dead air every Sunday on AMC, or a week early if you have AMC+.

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