The Walking Dead showrunner talks choice of Negan’s victims: ‘We wanted to break the audience’

Well, mission accomplished

The Walking Dead’s season 7 return was an absolute gut punch last night, with fans shocked by Negan’s brutality and our reviewer declaring the episode ‘boldly stoic but too bleak to enjoy’.

It saw (*spoilers ahead*) Glenn and Abraham turn out to be the victims of Negan’s baseball bat Lucille, a plot decision that was two years in the writing.

“The hardest thing about it was starting the script and thinking about what would break Rick,” show runner Scott Gimple said during TWD fallout chat show Talking Dead.

“But looking for a way to break the audience, too, not in a way that in any way to hurt them, but for them to believe that Rick Grimes would be under the thumb of Negan…so that they would believe that Rick could do what this guy says.”

‘The Day Will Come When You Won't Be’ was an utterly brutal episode, with Negan not only bludgeoning two main characters to death but then proceeding to torture Rick until he capitulated to him.

It took the lead from the comics, which Gimple didn’t want to deviate from.

“The death in the comic Robert [Kirkman] wrote was such a messed up but at the same time incredible way to take something away and make a story as impactful as it is,” Glenn actor Steven Yeun said. “When you read that in the comic you don’t want that to go to anyone else. It’s such an iconic moment.”

Negan claimed a second victim after Daryl attacked him when his frustration boiled over about the former’s sinister game of “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe”.

"I think he totally feels guilt,” actor Norman Reedus said of Daryl. “He’ll never let that guilt go. He’ll never release that from himself. He feels totally responsible.”

Despite Negan’s nefariousness, Jeffrey Dean Morgan doesn’t see his character as a villain.

"I can’t play him like that certainly because then you have only one note to go with,” he said. “In my mind, he’s not a bad guy. He’s still letting these guys off easy at this point. Remember they took out quite a few of my folks. If it weren’t for Daryl, Glenn would still be alive.”

The morning after the episode, one of the actors revealed that they actually wanted Negan to kill their character.