The Walking Dead Cast Talks Negan’s Beliefs & Dwight’s Role

It's going to be a harrowing first episode once we get past all the gore and the violence. But even though The Walking Dead's seventh season will explore a lot more of its characters' changes, Negan will still hold quite the spotlight.

Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan shared with Entertainment Weekly how he was able to internalize Negan as a character. According to Morgan, his approach was to try and see Negan's values and try to believe why he thinks he's right.

"What he's been doing is essentially the same thing these guys have been doing for the last seven years; he just happens to carry a baseball bat he loves dearly. This world is his stage and he owns it. You call it cocky, but we watched Rick and these guys get cocky in the last seven years… [this] is his way of letting them know they were wrong, and it's time to go down a notch… or ten."

Apart from Negan, there's also one character who may be the audience's next-hated person: the undying Dwight. Though we've only seen small snippets of him the past season, that teaser is enough to rile some Daryl diehards, since he seems like he's following in the latter's footsteps.

But before you whip out your pitchforks, The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple shared that he may not be as bad as he seems. In fact, there appears to be a couple of layers into his characterization, one which we hope will be developed over the course of the new season.

"Dwight has a very big story this season, as he did in the book. Dwight is a character that was trying to escape Negan and now he is one of Negan's most trusted lieutenants. That says a lot about that character. And he became one of the most trusted lieutenants after his face was burned. That makes for a very interesting character, a very conflicted character."

This makes him one of the more complex characters, because as previous idealist, his goodness led to what he is now. And how exactly he will act in accordance to Negan's may add to the tension already felt by the main cast.

The Walking Dead will be back on AMC on Oct. 23.

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