The Season 6 finale of AMC's "The Walking Dead" finally introduced viewers to Negan and his beloved barbed wire wrapped baseball bat named Lucille. Those familiar with Robert Kirkman's comics already know the danger Negan poses to the Alexandrians, and the television drama will detail it in Season 7 when a new episode premieres in the fall.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan is going to be a threat for a long while, and according to the actor he could be wreaking havoc till Season 8. "You're going to see Negan do some stuff in the next year or two that's not going to be very nice," Morgan said in a conference call with reporters Monday, according to TVLine.
The upcoming seasons will also feature stories from Negan's perspective, allowing viewers to understand his thought process. However, there won't be much of Negan's backstory. "The guy you see is the guy he is. There won't be this [big] 'behind the mask' reveal," showrunner Scott M. Gimple told the publication.
The Season 6 finale saw Negan hitting one of Rick's men with his bat Lucille. In the comics, Glenn is the one who gets bashed, but the show could take a different route and kill another fan-favourite character, leaving Glenn to live.
Showrunner Gimple has received a lot of backlash for not revealing the identity of Negan's victim in the Season 6 finale. But he justified the cliffhanger ending saying the death is the start of yet another story.
"The reasoning behind this was in many ways what we saw last night was the end of the story of season 6," he told reporters during the conference call, according to Variety. "Where Rick winds up is completely different from where he started in [episode] 1 [the season premiere] and where he started in [episode] 9 [the midseason premiere]. I know obviously and I've known for awhile what is in [the season 7 premiere]. Presenting what occurs, to show what happened in full force, is the beginning of the next story."