Jeffrey Dean Morgan spent nearly a decade playing Negan on ‘The Walking Dead’, but some viewers apparently still haven’t separated the actor from the villain.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan On How Fans Still Haven’t Forgiven Negan
Ten years after Negan’s infamous arrival, Morgan says he can still be walking down the street when someone recognizes him, swears at him, or flips him off because of what his character did to Glenn. “I still get hate,” he said. “I get people all the time that are just furious with the fact that I killed Glenn. He was so loved.”
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It is a pretty wild example of just how deeply that Season 6 finale affected viewers. Negan’s debut remains one of ‘The Walking Dead‘s most brutal moments. After capturing Rick and the rest of the group, he uses his barbed-wire bat, Lucille, to murder Abraham before turning his attention to Glenn.
Glenn’s death was especially devastating because Steven Yeun’s character had been with the series since its first season and had become one of its emotional anchors. Morgan admits he was surprised by just how intense the reaction became.
“Glenn died in the comic books, and that had come out four years prior. And so I was kind of shocked by the amount of people that one, it just sucked the air right out of them, but they just hated Negan and Jeffrey Dean with fervor. With fervor!” They clearly didn’t forgive him anyway.
Morgan recalled one particularly bizarre encounter in Georgia when an elderly woman recognized him while he was having coffee with Norman Reedus. Rather than simply telling Morgan she hated Negan, she reportedly hit him with her purse and began swearing at him.
“But when she saw me, the older lady, she smacked me with her purse and started swearing at me, like dropping f-bombs! And it was like, serious.” Reedus apparently decided that was the moment they needed to leave. Honestly, imagine playing a fictional villain so convincingly that someone’s grandmother attacks you with a handbag.
Negan Became A Good Character Because Of That Introduction
What makes the situation even more interesting is that Negan eventually evolved from ‘The Walking Dead‘s primary villain into something closer to an antihero. His complicated relationship with Maggie has become central to ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’, forcing both characters to confront the horrific history between them.
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Morgan says he once actively defended Negan against fans who hated him, but he has largely stopped doing that. He understands why audiences despise the character, especially after what happened to Glenn and Abraham.
At the same time, Morgan believes Negan exists in a world where almost everyone has committed terrible acts just to survive. That moral grayness is probably why Negan remains so fascinating. Fans may have spent ten years yelling at Jeffrey Dean Morgan for killing Glenn, but the fact that they still care this much proves just how unforgettable his performance was.
