This article contains discussion of sexual violence.

The vicious leader of the Saviors, Negan is easily The Walking Dead‘s most iconic villain, and one who fans truly love to hate. However, there’s no way he would have achieved his iconic status if one moment had played out as intended. Not only is Negan Walking Dead‘s most unpredictable villain, but he also has a pseudo-redemption arc over the larger story. However, one image would have made it hard for fans to accept any turn towards the good.

Negan’s Intimidation of Carl Was Originally Intended to Be WAY Darker

Thankfully, Walking Dead Has Lines It Won’t Cross

In The Walking Dead Deluxe #105 (from Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Dave McCaig and Rus Wooton), Kirkman discusses the R-rated zombie comic Crossed, arguing that Walking Dead is “extremely tame” in comparison, and there are many lines he won’t cross. He then reflects on a cut moment where it was implied Negan intended to sexually assault Rick Grimes’ son Carl.

In The Walking Dead #105 (reprinted in Deluxe edition with new colors from McCaig), Negan captures Carl, giving him a ‘tour’ of the Saviors’ stronghold. Negan constantly messes with Carl, forcing him to expose his head wound and practicing his baseball swings while making Carl sing You Are My Sunshine. Kirkman reveals that in an early planning stage, he intended for a far darker form of intimidation, explaining:

Thank heavens I thought better of this. In a lot of explorations of making Negan the most evil guy around, I guess originally, instead of swinging the bat to intimidate Carl during singing, he was going to… undress down to his boxers and say to Carl, “What do you want to do next?”

Negan’s Attempt at Redemption Is a Huge Part of the Character

But It Would Have Been Essentially Impossible if the Scene Had Gone Ahead

In his ‘Cutting Room Floor’ section, Kirkman reflects on his early plan for the issue. Kirkman notes that the scene was intended as a misdirection, with Negan changing clothes prior to his ceremonial burning of Saviors member Mark. However, given Negan’s character, love of outlandish intimidation, and highly sexualized dialogue, it’s hard to imagine that the implication would have been presented as accidental. Kirkman notes that he’s glad he cut this moment, and that the story was better for losing it:

This moment has been completely scrubbed from my memory, but I vaguely recall this being a misdirect. You THINK he’s got something else on his mind, but really he’s just changing clothes for the IRON ceremony. Regardless, I’m thankful that I decided not to even imply Negan could have been a pedophile. Anyway, this moment was definitely better left… on the cutting room floor!

Kirkman has repeatedly shared that Negan is his favorite character, primarily because of how easy it is to write creative dialogue for the character. Fans may think this is why Negan ultimately works alongside Rick’s group after being defeated and imprisoned, but it was actually artist Charlie Adlard who championed the character’s continued use, arguing that it would be more interesting to try and sincerely redeem such a heinous villain than to kill them off.

That redemption would have been much harder to buy if Negan had been shown engaging in sexually threatening behavior towards a child. Negan does some terrible, brutal things in Walking Dead – including beating Glenn to death and maintaining a harem of coerced ‘wives’ – and the series rightly leaves his potential for redemption open-ended, even after the final issue’s twenty-year time jump. However, threatening Carl in such a revolting way would have crossed an even darker line, making it a smart call for Walking Dead to cut this scene.

Walking Dead Deluxe #105 is available now from Image Comics.