Jeffrey Dean Morgan never thought he would be reprising his role as Negan after The Walking Dead came to an end.

It isn’t every day that you hear that even the cast and crew of a massively popular series are unaware of the future of the series. They usually have a good idea about the direction in which the show is headed. However, that was exactly what happened with the popular post-apocalyptic drama series, The Walking Dead as the star of the show, Jeffrey Dean Morgan once revealed in an interview.

The Walking Dead

Jeffrey Dean Morgan opens up about The Walking Dead coming to an end after 11 seasons

The Walking Dead will surely go down as one of the most popular horror drama series of all time. The popular post-apocalyptic series which premiered back in 2010 was the first live-action franchise made around the iconic comic book series of the same name.

Initially, The Walking Dead revolved around the story of a sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes, portrayed by Andrew Lincoln who is trying to survive in the age of zombies after he became the leader of a survivor group in Atlanta, Georgia. However, as the series progressed, a lot of other important characters were introduced and the focus of the series was gradually shifted to other major characters.

The Walking Dead was a massive success and fans of the series were almost sure that the series would never come to an end as there was never a shortage of mayhem on the long-running zombie series. However, in September 2020, AMC announced and revealed that The Walking Dead will come to an end soon and season 11 will be the final season of the series.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan reveals how TWD coming to an end came as a surprise to everyone | Source: TWD
As expected, the news came as a massive shock to the fans of the show. However, as Jeffrey Dean Morgan once revealed in an interview with Collider, the cast and creative team of the show also had no idea about the series coming to an end after having a stellar run. Morgan said,

“The news, when we got it in the middle of the pandemic, was a complete surprise, not only to me and the rest of the actors, but to everybody involved in the show from production. Scott Gimple and Angela Kang had no idea either. It came from nowhere and there was such a huge pivot.

I think they had Season 11 all mapped out, where they were going to go, and suddenly it became, ‘We also have to close the story, in a way.’ It took everybody by surprise, so it was a massive pivot. And then, they threw in the six tacked-on episodes to Season 10, and instead of doing 16, we’re going to do 24 more. There was a lot of stuff to wrap our heads around.”

The departure of Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes in season 9 of The Walking Dead resulted in a sharp decline in the ratings of the show which also could’ve been the reason that AMC decided to end the series after season 11.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan never thought he would be reprising his role after The Walking Dead came to an end

Jeffrey Dean Morgan portrayed the iconic character of Negan, the sociopathic leader of the Saviors in the later seasons of The Walking Dead. Negan is often portrayed as a complex character in the franchise and was one of the series’ most popular characters since the story of Rick Grimes came to an unfortunate end in season 9.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan has reprised his role as Negan in the iconic spinoff series The Walking Dead: Dead City. The American actor once opened up in an interview with Entertainment Weekly and revealed that he never thought he would still be portraying the role of Negan after the end of The Walking Dead. He said,

“If you had told me that a year ago that I would be doing it, I would’ve said, ‘There’s no way. I’m going to end this and walk away.’”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan was skeptical of reprising his role | Source: The Walking Dead: Dead City
However, walking away from a franchise as iconic as The Walking Dead is not an easy task as the American actor revealed further in the interview. He said,

“I think that The Walking Dead ending and walking away from it would’ve been a noble thing for us all to do. But the story was so good and so worth telling that it simply came down to, I couldn’t say no. And I felt invigorated and wanted to continue it.”

The Walking Dead: Dead City follows the story of Negan and Maggie as they travel through a post-apocalyptic Manhattan filled with zombies and denizens while searching for Maggie’s son, Hershel. The series has largely received average reviews from fans and critics.

The Walking Dead is currently streaming on Netflix and The Walking Dead: Dead City is streaming on AMC+.