Jeffrey Dean Morgan joined The Walking Dead as Negan in season 6. Negan's introduction was one of the most infamous moments in television history as he brutally beat down beloved survivors Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) with his barbed-wire baseball bat Lucille.
Negan's bombshell debut continues to be relevant to the series, especially with him starring in a spinoff series called Dead City alongside Maggie (Lauren Cohan). Over the years, The Walking Dead Universe has made moves to humanize him more; look no further than his origin story episode "Here's Negan" in season 10 of the original show, which chronicles his early days in the zombie apocalypse as he tries to find treatment for his wife Lucille, who was battling cancer.
But there's also another major side to Negan's arc that's always been on the sidelines: his marriage to Annie (Medina Senghore) and their son Joshua. Both Annie and Joshua have been slightly involved throughout the series, but overall, they have been nowhere near as integral to the plot as they should be. We're talking about Negan's family, after all.
In a 2023 interview, Morgan voiced his biggest issue with the franchise, noting that both Annie and Joshua have never really had much development. "We never saw the story of how he met [Annie], and why he would've married her, which always kind of bummed me out, because I think he was so in love with his wife, Lucille, and it had made such a production out of the whole Lucille of it all," Morgan told Entertainment Weekly.
""Having him show up with a wife without telling the story of why and how was always, like, a problem — an issue I had. But, you know, that's what happens when you're doing a show with 30 main characters. You're not able to service each character as well as you may want to. And I think now with 'Dead City,' we'll get some answers.""
Fast forward to today, and the issue is still as prevalent as ever after The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2. Sure, both characters appeared in the second season, but more as motivations for Negan rather than thoughtfully developed characters. Perhaps the franchise will go back and tell a "Here's Negan" style origin story for them. Surely Tales of The Walking Dead would've been a perfect platform to tell Annie and Negan's backstory?
AMC hasn't officially announced a third season of Dead City as of yet, although there have been rumors of it being in pre-production already. If we're going to see more development for Negan's family, it'll probably be there. In the meanwhile, AMC is readying a third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which will follow Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) as they travel through zombie-infested England and then zombie-infested France. That one will premiere on September 7, 2025.
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