The Walking Dead fans have been arguing for years over whether Negan, portrayed by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, has actually earned his so-called redemption arc. He started off as one of the most terrifying villains in the series, swinging his beloved barbed-wire bat, Lucille, into the skulls of fan-favorite characters. Now, not only has the franchise attempted to redeem him, but they’ve given him his own spinoff.
Season 2 of The Walking Dead: Dead City is set to premiere in May. The show centers around Negan’s redemption, specifically in the eyes of co-star Lauren Cohan’s Maggie, who watched her husband Glenn (Steven Yeun) get his head brutally bashed in by Negan. The spinoff features Maggie as the protagonist, recruiting Negan to help rescue her son. On paper, the idea of a villain-turned-antihero could be interesting. However, fans are frustrated at the AMC show’s clumsy handling of Negan’s complexities and arc across the two series.
Negan’s Crimes Beyond Glenn
The redemption of this controversial character is often hung on a single plot point that boils Negan’s villainy down to the Season 7 premiere, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” In this episode, Glenn and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) are murdered by Negan’s hand. Negan hasn’t even atoned enough for the lives of the two beloved characters, and those killings are just the tip of the iceberg.
Negan was a warlord who ran a cult-like dictatorship, took people’s wives as his own, and tortured others for fun. The Walking Dead franchise seems to have selective amnesia when it comes to the character’s many wrongdoings, making it difficult to buy into his transformation.
Negan’s Dark Past
His harem of coerced “wives” often only “agreed” to be with him under threat of their loved ones being harmed. In addition, he condoned violence against women within his group, ironically named the Saviors.
He ruled with cruelty. Those who crossed him would end up dead, tortured, disfigured, or worse. In Season 7, Episode 7, he even irons the face of one of his own men.
His men were allowed to terrorize communities. He had an entire army of barbarians who looted, killed, and did unspeakable things with his full permission.
He actively enjoyed all of it. Perhaps the thing above all that makes his redemption too hard to buy is that Negan didn’t just use violence to survive—he thrived on it. He was seen smiling, toying with his victims, and deriving a twisted pleasure from their pain.
Negan wasn’t just a bad guy; he was one of the worst. The way the show’s redemption arc focuses only on Glenn’s murder has left audiences feeling gaslit and frustrated. It’s almost as if the writers are choosing to ignore the full extent of Negan’s atrocities.
Illusion of Morality and Manufactured Sympathy
The most annoying thing about Negan’s evolution is the constant rewriting of his past to make him a more sympathetic character. During Season 10’s Whisperer War, Negan suddenly claims, “I would never hurt a kid.” This isn’t true, according to an earlier episode where Jesus (Tom Payne) mentions that the Saviors “killed a Hilltop kid right off the bat.” Not to mention, Negan almost killed Carl (Chandler Riggs) in “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life.”
Negan’s supposed moral code shifts whenever it’s convenient. If the writers want viewers need a shocking high-stakes villain moment, he’s a full-blown sociopath. If they need the audience to root for him, suddenly, he’s got boundaries, a moral compass, and a conscience.
How The Comics Handled His Redemption
Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comics did a much more elegant job with Negan’s redemption arc. They let him grow, evolve, and even attempt to prove himself changed. However, they never pretended he was fully redeemed. Instead of integrating him into the community or the story as a major player, the comics had a more fitting fate for him: exile.
After Rick defeats the Saviors, Negan spends years in a prison cell, reflecting on everything he’s done. He forms an odd bond with Carl, creating some organic sympathy. Their dynamic shows that he’s capable of change, but Carl makes a point to say he doesn’t forgive him. Even after fighting alongside Rick’s group and proving his worth against the Whisperers, they ultimately decide that Negan is too dangerous and untrustworthy to keep around. So, he’s given supplies and released — free, but tasked with surviving alone.
While his story and even his bond with Carl continue in some capacity, comic-book Negan never fully reintegrates and certainly never gets Maggie’s trust. For many fans of Kirkman’s graphic novels, this handling of Negan’s character feels more authentic and nuanced. He wasn’t executed, but he wasn’t forgiven either. Where the show deviates from the graphic novels is where it begins to show its storytelling cracks.
According to Walking Dead Wiki, Negan was actually supposed to die at the hands of Maggie in Issue 174, but Kirkman decided against it while writing the issue.
The Absurdity of a Negan-Maggie Team
As if trying to redeem Negan wasn’t tricky enough, the franchise took things a step further by placing Maggie under pressure to work with him in The Walking Dead: Dead City. It’s plausible that she would do anything for her son, Hershel Jr. (Logan Kim). However, it’s a little far-fetched to believe she would work alongside the man who brutally murdered her husband, laughing gleefully as he did.
To be fair, Maggie’s complex feelings about Negan are explored in both the original series and the spinoff. She desires to kill him at one point, but decides to let him rot in his prison cell instead. Negan also saves Hershel Jr. in an effort to right his wrongs. Even in the show, Maggie never truly forgives him — and in the finale of Dead City Season 1, she even sells him out to The Croat (Željko Ivanek).
Still, the reluctant buddy-cop-style alliance between them has rubbed many fans the wrong way. It not only insults Maggie’s character, but cheapens Glenn’s death and undermines the reality of Negan’s past. It’s a steep task to truly redeem a character whose intro on the show was so brutal it caused a massive drop in viewership. Despite that, though, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a brilliant actor who has become a fan-favorite among those who stuck through Season 7. Perhaps AMC wants to milk his popularity for all it’s worth.
The Franchise Wants to Have Its Cake and Eat it Too
The Walking Deadintroduced Negan as an unhinged warlord whose tyranny made him one of the show’s most iconic villains. His appearance raised the stakes and created some shocking moments. Even when the writers changed their tune and began Negan’s quest for redemption, fans were intrigued. However, many believe the acceleration of his redemption and forgiveness within the group felt contrived.
The show once needed him as an all-powerful threat, then decided they wanted to keep him around as an antihero without ensuring his redemption was justified. Perhaps Morgan’s terrifying performance as Negan in Seasons 7 and 8 has contributed to the show’s struggle. It’s difficult to erase the image of a smiling Negan laughing at Maggie’s pain as he crushes her husband. By Season 10, he was cracking jokes and saving Judith like he was always part of the family.
With the way they initially portrayed Negan, the writers created an uphill battle for his supposed redemption. Dead City Season 1 tried to remind us of his past, but only in a capacity that could be deemed “forgivable.” If the story needs drama, someone will mention Glenn’s death. But when they need him to be likable, it’s like none of his other crimes ever happened. Instead of doing the hard work of crafting a believable arc, it seems as though they have cherry-picked his atrocities to fit a new narrative.
What’s Next for Negan?
With The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2 approaching, fans are gearing up for more Jefferey Dean Morgan. While the spinoff has received critical praise for its grittiness, performances, and unique style, it’s worth asking whether any additional seasons are warranted, given the feelings toward Negan’s character evolution. Perhaps the best-case scenario is that the Dead City writers wrap up the saga of Maggie and Negan sooner rather than later, so the franchise can move on and Negan can live on in infamy.
