Throughout the years of The Walking Dead franchise, the show has highlighted that living people are just as much of a threat as the undead. Many villains in the series ended up being irredeemable, from the Governor in early seasons to Alpha in later seasons. Though Negan Smith was arguably the worst villain throughout the various shows in the franchise, he shocked the audience by having one of the most endearing redemption arcs.
Negan is well-known for having a major villain-to-hero arc between Season 7 to Season 11 of The Walking Dead. However, his characterization is more complicated than that. Through his timeline, viewers can understand how Negan became an antagonist, how he was able to change, and why he’s even more complex as a hero than a villain. As Season 2 of Dead City approaches its release, fans need to understand how Negan went from the Saviors’ leader to the reluctant anti-hero now being pushed into another dark, harmful path.
Negan Was the Most Formidable Villain
The Walking Dead, Seasons 7 & 8
Negan’s storyline began in Season 6 of The Walking Dead, far before his first appearance. The Saviors became a threat in “No Way Out” when bikers blocked Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham’s path, calling themselves “Negan.” When Alexandria connected with Hilltop, they formed an alliance that included Rick’s group taking down a Saviors’ outpost they thought was the entirety of the enemy. Negan Smith finally showed his face when he and his Saviors cornered a group of major characters in the Season 6 finale. The beginning of Season 7 featured Negan killing off both Abraham Ford and Glenn Rhee, immediately making him one of the most disliked characters in the franchise. Throughout this critical season, Negan holds control over Alexandria and the newly introduced communities of Hilltop, the Kingdom, and Oceanside. However, everything changes when the communities team up against the Saviors.
Season 8 is all about the major Saviors War that forever changed Negan’s perspective. Before, he was a tyrant who thought his ruthless behavior and large group were enough to keep other communities in line. In this season, Negan is still confident about the conflict and his odds of winning. Unfortunately for him, this arrogance is inevitably his downfall. The people of the communities he fights to control do not give up, going on missions to find guns to replace the ones Negan stole from their communities. In the finale of Season 8, Negan realizes his biggest mistake was underestimating other survivors and believing his boisterous and violent personality was enough to keep people in line. After he takes Eugene Porter in Season 7, he believes the man is loyal and has him working to make bullets. Eugene never truly betrayed his group, however, and decides to do the admirable thing and sabotage the Saviors’ bullets, causing the villains to lose the battle.
Though Negan has a great villain redemption arc, many viewers loved his first couple of seasons when he was an antagonist. Even though he’s now a hero, the villainous Negan was the most terrifying and powerful enemy in the entire Walking Dead franchise. In these episodes, as the leader of the Saviors, Negan is arrogant and brutally efficient at keeping people under control. His dark and disturbing humor quickly made audiences love to hate him. This arc as an all-powerful dictator established Negan as one of the biggest threats in the post-apocalyptic world. However, his surprisingly emotional moments, such as when Carl dies in Season 8, Episode 9, “Honor,” proved even the most heinous of villains can be complicated and redeemable. Highlighting how Negan’s terrible actions were driven by his belief that his ways kept people alive and paved the way for the rest of his storyline.
His Redemption Took Years
The Walking Dead, Seasons 9 & 10
After Negan’s fight with Rick at the end of Season 8, he was mercifully spared and made to be an example to others in the communities. He was locked up in a cell a year and a half after the war at the beginning of Season 9, his mental health quickly deteriorating while spending so much time alone. He has an impact on the survivors, even in confinement, causing tensions between Rick and his friends, especially Maggie and Daryl, who want Negan dead. However, when Maggie breaks into his cell and attempts to assassinate him, he begs her to kill him, making her realize suffering for his crimes is worse than death. When Rick blows up the bridge in Season 9 and disappears (presumed dead), the timeline skips ahead ten years and reveals Negan has been coping with his imprisonment by talking to Judith through the window in his cell.
Season 9’s development of Negan’s character outlines how he becomes one of the good guys in The Walking Dead. He has the opportunity to escape his cell when Gabriel leaves the cell unlocked. When he journeys outside Alexandria, however, he learns that the world has gone on without him, and it’s not as easy to live on his own as he thought. Despite the leaders refusing him, Negan becomes determined to stay in the community and prove himself valuable. He officially proves himself to the community when Judith runs after Dog during a storm, and he risks his life to bring her back. This is one of the most important moments in Negan’s redemption arc, highlighting how he can do something good without needing anything in return.
Season 10 continues this slow progression of Negan’s character. After six years, Alexandrians still don’t trust him to be free but allow him to work outside his cell during the day. He builds relationships that shape his new-found personality, including defending Lydia from those who want to harm her due to her mother being the leader of the Whisperers. When Carol is out for revenge due to Alpha killing her adopted son, she sets Negan free, and he succeeds in assassinating the villain, finally proving to the communities that he’s capable of being their ally. This season has one of the most impactful episodes for Negan’s storyline, concluding the season with the story of how Negan lost his wife due to cancer during the apocalypse, which shaped him into the villain he became.
The Final Season Featured a Heroic Negan
The Walking Dead, Season 11
Negan is arguably the most morally gray character in The Walking Dead, and this is highlighted in the final installment of the flagship series. At the beginning of this season, he goes on a mission with Maggie and a group. When Maggie makes it clear she wants him to die on the mission, Negan abandons her to a horde of walkers, nearly causing her demise. Desperate to prove himself to Maggie and others, he continues to be a hero in the Reapers plot. He stands by his allies, following Maggie’s lead despite knowing she still wants him dead. However, once they deal with this threat, Negan decides to leave Alexandria for the second time. This marked a change in Negan’s personality after his redemption arc, showing that time outside his cell prepared him to once again care for himself.
During the Commonwealth arc, Negan appears once again. When Aaron, Gabriel, Maggie, and other survivors are stuck in a dangerous situation due to Hornsby’s manipulative schemes, Negan and his new friends help them evade the Commonwealth soldiers. It’s revealed that Negan is in a relationship with a woman named Annie, who is carrying his child. It’s shockingly revealed that Annie knows about his past and chooses to love him anyway because she understands the world they live in has changed people. This is a monumental change for Negan, which pushes him toward his inevitable hero persona. With someone understanding his terrible past and choosing to love him and all of his faults, Negan fights for a better life. Despite this, he still emphasizes that he understands the trauma he’s caused people, especially when Glenn’s son Hershel confronts Negan about his father’s death, and he tells the truth and encourages the boy to seek revenge for his father when he’s old enough.
By the conclusion of The Walking Dead, Negan is one of the best characters. He not only works with other beloved survivors to take down the corrupt regime of the Commonwealth, but he also puts his life at risk multiple times for other people. In an unforgettable scene, Negan takes the blame for an uprising in a Commonwealth work camp, trying to save others like Annie and Ezekiel from execution. He tries once again to make amends with Maggie, suggesting he try to assassinate Pamela Milton so she doesn’t risk her life by doing so. In the final episode, after they have successfully saved the surviving citizens of the Commonwealth from a horde of walkers, Negan asks Maggie if she’ll ever forgive him for all he’s done. In an emotional moment, Maggie admits that when she looks at him, all she sees is Glenn’s death, but she knows he’s changed, even if they can never be allies. This foreshadows his most recent storyline in Dead City.
Dead City Could Regress His Character
Dead City, Season 1
In Dead City, a few years have passed before Maggie hunts down Negan. When she tells him Hershel has been taken by a man known as the Croat, he reveals this man was a part of the Saviors, but Negan tried to kill him when he got out of hand. This plot ties into Negan’s previous timeline in a few ways, including highlighting how Negan was a better leader than was let on who tried to get rid of an excessively violent person. Though Dead City is a spin-off to expand on the post-apocalyptic franchise, it heavily ties in previous plots, such as Maggie still wishing Negan dead. This long-standing conflict between the two main characters is a major aspect of Dead City, which eventually reveals that Maggie lured Negan to Manhattan to trade him to the Croat in exchange for her son.
After over a decade of Maggie and Negan fighting for mutual understanding, this moment between the two complicates the previous villain’s chances of continuing his hero arc. He is confronted by the Croat’s leader, the Dama, seeking his old Savior tactics to take over neighboring communities. Negan proves to be a good person by resisting this offer, but he’s left with little choice when the Dama reveals she cut off Hershel’s finger and will kidnap and torture the teen again if he doesn’t comply. This manipulation from a new villain seems to be leading Negan back to his villainous ways, setting him up for an interesting storyline in Dead City Season 2.
Negan’s timeline isn’t over yet, and Dead City promises plenty of twists and turns for this Walking Dead character. The former villain has come a long way throughout the years, transforming from one of the most despicable antagonists ever to a complex, likable hero worthy of viewers’ interest. Now that he’s potentially heading into another dark, depraved arc as a villain, Negan could prove to have the most entertaining timeline in the franchise.
