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‘The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan slams Negan character as “one dimensional”

Ash_Lee_Can

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"We didn’t learn anything about him for two years"

The Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan has slammed his Negan character as “one dimensional”.

The character appeared at the end of season six, before being a permanent feature in the following two seasons.

“I thought the first couple of years that we knew Negan was very one-dimensional,” Morgan said, revealing that he believes the character to be better since new writer Angels Kang came in to replace Scott Gimple.

“To me, when Negan came out of the RV for the first time, we didn’t learn anything about him for two years, three years. And that was hard,’ the actor said while speaking at Walker Stalker Con Atlanta (via Metro).

In a recap of the episode, NME‘s Sam Moore wrote: “Elsewhere in walker world, Aaron and Negan get some screen time together (“peanut butter, meet jelly,” as Gabriel puts it), while the show continues to push the narrative that, actually, maybe Negan isn’t a bad guy after all (“I’m not that guy anymore,” Negan even says at one point).

They still dragging Simple Gimple, but I'm glad someone said something, even if it had to be the actor himself. Like all these fans hype Negan's ass up like he's the greatest thing that happened to the show when the dude is one note. He's still lowkey one note-ish, but now I no longer care about the character personally. He ain't been popping since he gutted Spencer in the season 8 mid-finale. It's almost like he turned into a cartoon character. I mean his hammy ass was already kinda cartoony, but became too much. He comes across as a fratboy tryna relieve his glory days of hazing, hoeing, and dick jokes. Simon was the star villain of season 8 to me, at least the second half...
 

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He seem cool with it until alpha came along and he saw how that character got written. He also overacts with negan and he doesn't come across as scary as his character should but rather comical simon was scarier than him.
 
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harls

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He seem cool with it until alpha came along and he saw how that character got written. He also over acts with negan and he doesn't come across as scary as his character should but rather comical simon was scarier than him.
He seemed to love Negan when he played him in Rampage. He was over acting with that character whenever he got that chance. I was shocked he didn’t come to Supernatural playing Negan.
 

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His portrayal of Neegan ruined the show ( in addition of terrible writing).
He didn't even look the part and wasn't scary enough.
 

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Man Denny and Izzie were true soulmates, because this was the exact same type of hater BS Katherine Heigl was saying about her character on Greys. If you hate your “one note” character so much, why not quit and find more meaningful work? Oh yeah, $.
 

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I agree with him and I'm surprised he was honest.


Scott Gimple and the show tried to forced that character down people's throat, but he has ruined a handful of characters and their potential on the show (Tyrese, Jesus, Morgan, Carl...).

Negan came from the comics but they could have written or adapted him they way they chose like with Michonne. It was apparent and some of the things Gimple said in interviews that he thought that character was really just going it kill it without any really groundwork. At least he could have had a standalone back story if you are going to shove him down people's throat at "hello". It was alleged that Andy warned him/them about a few things including the Negan focus but he didn't listen.
 

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I lost interest in The Walking Dead last season, but I thought they were attempting to give Negan nuance through his love of Carl or whatever. Also those "confessional" scenes with the priest seemed set up to give him more depth.
 

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He seem cool with it until alpha came along and he saw how that character got written. He also over acts with negan and he doesn't come across as scary as his character should but rather comical simon was scarier than him.
Yup. Simon was always more scarier than Negan to me, he was just in the mostly in the background until season 8. I always used to ask what if Simon was written as the leader and Negan as the second in command? The only time I found Negan scary or intimidating was during the lineup scene. Meanwhile, we met Simon beating the hell outta some dude and talking his sh!t the way he do. Simon was the more interesting of the two...
 

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Negan was a bit much in the comic at times too if we are being honest, but as I have said before the show and the comic rely on villains to carry the story forward too much. When the base of the story is a zombie apocalypse there are tons of things you could do with it that don't require a new villain every time you turn around especially on the show.
 

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I lost interest in The Walking Dead last season, but I thought they were attempting to give Negan nuance through his love of Carl or whatever. Also those "confessional" scenes with the priest seemed set up to give him more depth.
They couldn't really go where with the Carl thing because they killed him off (and used his death to try and humanize him smh) instead of using him further to add depth to Negan through their messed up dynamic like on the comics (Carl comes to talk to him in his cell all the time like Judith does in the show, almost like they're friends, except he's older, but he also reminds Negan that he will kill him one day)...
 

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Tbh there's two factors here.

Gimple and Kirkman.


Gimple is too much of a yes man, which explains why, despite having some of the weakest writing, has been The longest standing show runner.

Also, the longer Gimple stayed on, the less they deviated from the comic.


In doing that, the cracks in Kirkmans comic writing becomes more noticable.

Negan on the show really isn't that diff from the comics. And unless you read the "Here's Negan" story, there really is not expanse on the character.
 

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I’m not a fan of Jeffrey but I’m glad he was honest about the writing. Someone had to say it. Gimple was a horrible show runner. He managed to ruin just about every character because he did not have the creative vision to write complex characters and story lines. He was only concerned about adapting big comic book moments. Seeing that some parts of the comics are cheesy that was never going to work in the realistic setting that Darabont created for the show. I have zero faith those Rick movies will be good hearing that Gimple will be in charge of them. AMC keeps hiring him even with his horrible track record. Smh.
 

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I agree with him and I'm surprised he was honest.


Scott Gimple and the show tried to forced that character down people's throat, but he has ruined a handful of characters and their potential on the show (Tyrese, Jesus, Morgan, Carl...).

Negan came from the comics but they could have written or adapted him they way they chose like with Michonne. It was apparent and some of the things Gimple said in interviews that he thought that character was really just going it kill it without any really groundwork. At least he could have had a standalone back story if you are going to shove him down people's throat at "hello". It was alleged that Andy warned him/them about a few things including the Negan focus but he didn't listen.

Agreed. I'm surprised he sold his boy Gimple out, especially since Gimp used to cape for JDM/Negan so hard all the time.
 

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Tbh there's two factors here.

Gimple and Kirkman.


Gimple is too much of a yes man, which explains why, despite having some of the weakest writing, has been The longest standing show runner.

Also, the longer Gimple stayed on, the less they deviated from the comic.


In doing that, the cracks in Kirkmans comic writing becomes more noticable.

Negan on the show really isn't that diff from the comics. And unless you read the "Here's Negan" story, there really is not expanse on the character.

It is comical watching die heart fans of the comic struggle to admit that parts of that comic were not as good as they made it out to be. For example, them entering Alexandria was not that great in the comic either.
 
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TWD became a juggernaut basically with good storytelling and acting (from lesser known actors). It made for an enjoyable viewing experience to just concentrate on the story and the characters rather than focus on the big-named actor portraying them. (I feel the same way about Samantha Morton to a lesser degree) JDM came onboard like gangbusters and it felt like he was trying to usurp Andrew Lincoln as the star. Well, it didn't work out that way and thus the mass exodus of viewers and ratings shortly after his arrival.

The new direction of Negan as an anti-hero is also questionable since a 10 year old girl was needed to jump start it.
 

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I’m not a fan of Jeffrey but I’m glad he was honest about the writing. Someone had to say it. Gimple was a horrible show runner. He managed to ruin just about every character because he did not have the creative vision to write complex characters and story lines. He was only concerned about adapting big comic book moments. Seeing that some parts of the comics are cheesy that was never going to work in the realistic setting that Darabont created for the show. I have zero faith those Rick movies will be good hearing that Gimple will be in charge of them. AMC keeps hiring him even with his horrible track record. Smh.

I don't know that I even believe those Rick movies will get made.

I agree that Gimple focused way too much on the big moments and didn't weave a proper story leading up to them. Richonne remains his strongest success by miles and miles and even that could have been better.
 

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He’s too skinny to be negan.

Negan is based on Henry rollins
Was Henry Rollins offered the part to play Negan? I am trying to remember if he was on the show before. I think it would have been pretty cool to get him to play like on The Boys they have Simon Pegg playing the dad of a character he was based on in the comics.
 

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It is comical watching die heart fans of the comic struggle to admit that parts of that comic were not as good as they made it out to be. For example, them entering Alexandria was not that great in the comic either.


Honestly every thing after the prison arc was lame and that last arc with the community was terrible and you can understand why Kirkman ended the series there. His heart hasn't been in this comic for a few years now.
 

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Was Henry Rollins offered the part to play Negan? I am trying to remember if he was on the show before. I think it would have been pretty cool to get him to play like on The Boys they have Simon Pegg playing the dad of a character he was based on in the comics.

I believe he was doing a different zombie based show at the time.
 

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I don't know that I even believe those Rick movies will get made.

I agree that Gimple focused way too much on the big moments and didn't weave a proper story leading up to them. Richonne remains his strongest success by miles and miles and even that could have been better.


Let's be real here, richonne only works bc of the chemistry between Andy and danai.

I've never really gotten the feeling of any legit substance to their pairing in the show.
 

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Let's be real here, richonne only works bc of the chemistry between Andy and danai.

I've never really gotten the feeling of any legit substance to their pairing in the show.

Their chemistry definitely is what drives richonne, I will be honest I was surprised they let not one but two blonde hair blue eyed love interest go on that show without a second thought but both actresses were terrible next to andrew (I also think some of that was his doing I really think he was serious about wanting richonne).
 

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He seem cool with it until alpha came along and he saw how that character got written. He also overacts with negan and he doesn't come across as scary as his character should but rather comical simon was scarier than him.

Alpha is a much better written character....and played by someone (Samantha Morton) with much better acting skills than Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And I say that as someone who likes the Negan character (although he has been one-note for much of his time on screen....and why has there been virtually no Negan backstory).
 

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His portrayal of Neegan ruined the show ( in addition of terrible writing).
He didn't even look the part and wasn't scary enough.

His character never translated well from the comics. I would have let his character be for a season or two and then let it go. If they could delete, add, or remix other characters or storylines they could have done the same with Negan. They thought he would blow up TWD and he didn't. It was the writers' fault (those long monologues), as well JDM's overacting that did Negan's character in.
 

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The more that I think about it....I don't think that TV Negan was as one-dimensional as JDM laments that he was. Yes, TV Negan was over the top, meant to be funny, and be a sociopath. However, TV Negan (much like Comic Negan, from what I understand) also saved Sasha from getting raped by that prison guard, and has/had a soft spot for children like Carl, Judith, and now Lydia. TV Negan not coming across as a more nuanced character has more to do with JDM's insufficient acting skills than with the character itself.
 

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Sad: Negan is the strongest male character on the show rn

Darryl: not as calculating as negan
Rick: gone
Aaron: still grieving the loss of his partner - makes him too angry and unstable
Beta: alphas flunky
 
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