Negan (TV Series)

"Hi. You're Rick, right? I'm Negan, and I do not appreciate you killing my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people... you killed more of my people. Not cool. Not cool. You have no idea how not cool that shit is, but I think you're going to be up to speed here shortly. Yeah... you are so going to regret crossing me in a few minutes. Yes, you are. You see, Rick... whatever you do, no matter what, you do not mess with the new world order, and the new world order is this, and it's really, very simple; even if you're stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand it. You ready? Here it goes, pay attention. Give me your shit, or I will kill you."

- Negan to Rick Grimes

Negan (pronounced NEE-gan) is a main character, an antagonist, as well as a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's The Walking Dead. He is the leader of the Saviors and serves as the primary antagonist of the second half of Season 6 and Season 7

Personality
"A physically imposing, charismatic, brutal, smart, ferocious, frightening, hilarious, inappropriate, oddly friendly, fun loving sociopath that is both a leader of men and a killer of men. He has both a practical and emotional intelligence, he's a brilliant strategist, he's pure, dangerous, murderous, is often gleeful, and yet still has both discipline and a code. He is known for having a temper that can mentally vaporize people. He truly has one of the strongest personalities ever."

Virginia
Almost nothing is known about Negan's life prior to the outbreak other than he was a used car salesman. He may have lived somewhere in or near the state of Virginia.

Washington, D.C
At some point after the outbreak, Negan formed a group of survivors he named "The Saviors," which mainly consisted of thugs and bandits who operated under his command and fiercely ruled over. His group quickly gained a grim reputation for their ruthlessness and uncompromising methods. Throughout the following months, Negan and his group gradually began to grow in size (consisting of over 100 survivors), upon where he appointed several lieutenants, including Simon, Wade, Paula and Bud,  additionally he established several outposts located throughout Washington D.C where together they began to terrorize other survivors and communities, and subjugated them to his will.

Negan and his group soon discovered a community known as the Hilltop Colony. Immediately after the farming community's walls were built, Negan dispatched a group of Saviors; upon meeting the community leader, Gregory, the Saviors demanded half of the community's resources. In exchange, they promised not to destroy the community. Though the Hilltop was reluctant to comply, the Saviors showed their true motives by demonstrating their power, killing Rory, a 16 year-old boy, as a display of superiority.

Season 6
Approximately 20 months into the apocalypse, a supply exchange was conducted between the Hilltop and the Saviors. When a group consisting of Ethan, Andy, Crystal, Craig, Tim and Marsha was sent to deliver their share of supplies, Negan personally felt unsatisfied with the amount he received, and thus had both Tim and Marsha executed and Craig imprisoned in one of the Saviors' several outposts. Negan ordered the remaining survivors to return to the Hilltop and, in exchange for Craig's release, kill Gregory and bring his head back as evidence of his death.

"Last Day on Earth"
After Rick Grimes's group is captured by the Saviors following several roadblocks and a failed diversion on the way to the Hilltop Colony, Negan steps out of their RV and confronts them, introducing himself as the Saviors' true leader. Pacing back and forth before the group, he lectures them on their actions against his group and the "new world order", explaining that Rick's people owe Negan's men their supplies and that he will personally deal with them if they refuse.

He goes on to inform Rick that he is keeping his group alive as he intends to make them work for him - however, in retribution for Rick and his people killing many Saviors, Negan warns that he will have to "beat the holy hell" out of one member of the group. He begins pacing up and down the line-up while considering his choice, and introduces Lucille, a wooden baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, as his weapon of choice. He threatens to put a visibly wrecked Maggie out of her misery, but Glenn lunges forward, only to be dragged back in line by Dwight. Negan then commands them not to attempt that again.

Unable to decide who to kill, Negan ultimately comes up with an idea and begins pointing at each survivor with Lucille, chanting "eeny, meeny, miney, moe". Going up and down the line-up, he eventually stops on one survivor at random - as this is seen from the victim's perspective, the identity of the survivor is left anonymous. As the rest of the group begins to yell in protest, Negan warns the group not to interfere, or he will cut Carl's other eye out, and feed it to Rick. He then brings the bat down hard on the victim's head, causing them to bleed heavily. Negan is seen standing over them as they recover from the first blow, remarking, "Look at that! Taking it like a champ!" before bringing the bat down again. As the person's vision goes to black, Negan is then heard mercilessly beating them repeatedly, with muffled screams and protests audible from the other members of Alexandria as the episode ends.

"The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be"
After seeing Negan kill a member of his own party, Rick promises the Savior's leader that he will kill him someday. Amused, Negan acts surprised by this declaration before telling Simon, his right-hand, to give him Rick's axe. He then stands, grabs Rick by the collar, and drags him to the RV, viciously announcing that he will be back and if Rick isn't with him, his men will have permission to kill the rest of Rick's gang.

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Negan has killed:


 * Rory (Caused)
 * Marsha (Caused or Direct)
 * Tim (Caused or Direct)
 * Ethan (Indirectly Caused)
 * At least 1 unknown resident of Alexandria Safe-Zone.
 * 20 unnamed people
 * Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people (Caused and Direct)

Relationships
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Dwight
While it is unconfirmed why Dwight and his wife fled from the Saviors, he likely fled because of Negan's frightening ways of leadership. When he and Honey are somehow caught, Negan possibly punished Dwight by burning the left side of his face, either by himself directly or by his men. Their relationship has presumably been severed from than on. However, it is assumed that Negan still trusts Dwight somehow, since Dwight led a group of the Saviors deep into the woods, and likely became one of his high ranking members.

In "Last Day On Earth" Dwight is shown to be very loyal to Negan, going as far as almost killing Glenn for desperately jumping towards Negan in fear of Maggie dying. Negan orders Dwight to get Glenn back in line, which he does without question.

Simon
Simon is Negan's right hand man, and the two have a strong relationship as Simon is one of the principal people Negan uses to solve his problems, being given the task of capturing both a runaway thief and an RV in one day. Simon was mostly in charge of blockading each route to from Alexandria to the Hilltop with obstacles, walkers, and Saviors, ensuring that Rick Grimes and his group would not reach safety. He clearly has some authority in the group, and considering how the Saviors are led by a single man, showing how much Negan trusts him.

Gregory
Gregory is shown to be fearful of Negan and becomes submissive to his demands, giving him half of his community supplies, after Negan and the Saviors killed a member from the Hilltop. Negan takes advantage of Gregory's cowardice and begins demanding more supplies. After some time, he can't keep up to the amount that Negan wants, so Negan kidnaps Craig and sends Ethan to kill Gregory for failing to follow his orders. After the attempt of taking Gregory's life fails, the leader of the Hilltop decides to make a deal with Rick Grimes's group to eliminate Negan and the Saviors once and for all.

Rick Grimes
"'''I'm gonna kill you. (...) Not today. Not tomorrow. But I'm gonna kill you."

- Rick declaring that he will kill Negan. Upon being informed of Negan, Rick clearly despises him for the actions he has committed both towards that of his group as well as the Hilltop Colony, following this Rick personally organized his group to kill Negan on behalf of the group's survival as well as that of the Hilltop Colony. Rick also expressed a vengeful willingness to find him. However upon being captured by The Saviors alongside his group during his first personal encounter with Negan, Rick displays immense fear of his wrath and superiority. Negan clearly despises Rick for killing his men and personally kills an unknown member of Rick's group in revenge for his actions. Following this, Rick promises Negan that he will kill him someday. Negan is amused and surprised by Rick's threat.

Carl Grimes
Upon encountering Carl for the first time, Negan takes an immediate interest with the child. Carl however shows nothing but anger and hatred for him, something that impresses Negan. When he gives a speech to the group, unlike the rest of the group including his own father, Negan bends his knees in front of Carl to talk to him, showing he somehow respects him. When he learns that Carl is Rick's son, he further taunts that he wishes not to kill the "little future serial killer". After picking up the Lucille victim, he warns the group to not interfere least he will bring more harm by cutting Carl's other eye and feed it to his father.}}

Season 6

 * "Last Day on Earth"

Season 7

 * "The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be"

Trivia

 * Negan is the third major recurring antagonist in the TV Series, the first being Shane Walsh and the second being The Governor.
 * Henry Rollins, who partially inspired the character's design, auditioned for the role. However it was ultimately handed down to Jeffrey Dean Morgan instead.
 * Upon describing the character, Kirkman stated that "Negan is kind of an atomic bomb that's going to be dropped onto the show and the show will probably never be the same after that".
 * Negan's outfit was designed by costume designer Eulyn Womble, who custom made his jacket, belt and hand wraps custom made in order to specifically match his comic book counterpart.
 * Through both Molly and Primo's expression, Negan is implied to be some kind of a cult leader.
 * Upon discussing Negan's foul-mouthed nature, Jeffery Dean Morgan stated: "We're going to push AMC- the plan is to push them as far as they can because it's who Negan is. He uses some colorful language. And I use some colorful language. And reading the comic, it's important. So we'll see where that lands. It's our intention that this character is going to leap off the pages of the comic book. It's very important that that's who it is. Some of the characters there's much more leeway, but Negan is a guy that you want to keep as true as possible, and that would be how I want to play him as well."
 * Negan's first appearance in "Last Day on Earth" featured no f-words, and Negan's general language was kept tame. However, in the DVD and Blu-Ray release of Season 6, his debut was partially a re-shot, featuring speech almost identical to his comic counterpart.
 * According to Robert Kirkman, he expressed that Negan and Rick share several similarities as the pair have even been desribed as 'two sides of the same coin, only Negan's moral compass is a little more out of whack'.
 * Negan has killed the fifth largest amount of living characters on the TV show with at least 25 and is tied with Merle, while Daryl has the fourth largest with at least 27, Carol has the third largest with at least 37, Rick has the second largest with at least 40, and the Governor has the largest with over 50.
 * In an interview with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, upon being questioned regarding any insight into Negan's backstory, he elaborated that Kirkman is creating a prequel story solely dedicated to the character titled Here's Negan. Morgan expressed hope of divulging into this, however nothing is confirmed as of yet.