The Walking Dead Featurette Shows Just How Smart & Scary Negan is

The first episode of The Walking Dead's season 7 showed us just how much of a Big Bad Negan really is.

There's not just one but two heads bashed in, leading people to think that it was among the goriest TV episodes to date—so much that even the PTC expressed their displeasure of Negan's head-bashing violence.

In a new featurette from AMC, Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan discloses the reason for why he didn't kill Rick in the first place. Of course, before you cry foul at the thought of the deviation from the comic, this would indeed have been an extreme change, and one that would give the creators a lot of room to play with.

However, Morgan also answered it in a way that showed how he not only understood Negan's character to the letter, but also why Negan probably makes the Governor a civil antagonist.

"Maybe the smart thing would have been to kill Rick. Cut the head off the snake. But I think Negan is thinking a couple steps ahead here, and he's like, ‘Well wait, if I can break this guy and have him working for me, I stand to gain a hell of a lot more.' As horrible as the deaths of two survivors, that moment of possibility of cutting off Carl's arm I think is the emotional low point of the show. I think it all led to that."

I couldn't agree more. I also felt that that was Rick's turning point from being a little defiant to definitely obedient. The raw look of desperation and the babbling pleas added that effect. And when Negan made him stop, that's when Rick realized that this man held everything in his hands.

That premiere episode definitely took a lot out of the fans. Even The Walking Dead's official Twitter has been giving fans some impossibly funny cheer-uppers for fans who might have taken the hit just as hard as Glenn and Abraham did. This would have to be my favorite.

Hopefully, the next episode will deliver yet again on the promise of it being funny. After all, we're going to be seeing Ezekiel and his tiger in The Kingdom.

The Walking Dead airs every Sundays on AMC.

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