Steven Ogg has opened up about his exit from The Walking Dead and explained how he’d wanted the character of Simon to bow out in a different way. When Negan and his loyal lieutenant finally butted heads, Ogg was told he couldn’t change a key scene between the pair.

The penultimate episode of Season 8 saw Negan return to the Sanctuary after he’d been abandoned by Simon and Dwight, with the two treacherous Saviors wanting rid of the bat-swinging villain. Simon came unstuck when Negan realized he was the one who held a coup in an attempt to take over the Sanctuary. Negan told Simon to get on his knees and face away from him, and for a moment, it looked like Negan’s right-hand man was about to clubbed by Lucille.

Speaking to the Talk Dead To Me Podcast, Ogg said that he’d wanted Simon to be more defiant and actually face Negan when he thought he was about to be bludgeoned to death. “I thought I’m gonna face him. I’m gonna kneel, I’m gonna turn around, and I’m gonna put my arms behind my back,” said Ogg. He continued,  “I’m just going to stare at him. ‘Bash my head in, kill me, but you’re gonna look me in the eyes. Let’s do this.’ So I made that choice, and then … they were like, ‘Interesting choice, Steven, but you’re not doing that. You’re not gonna be facing Negan eye-to-eye, turn around.'” Although Ogg didn’t get his defiant face-off between Negan and Simon, he understood why. He concluded, “So that’s what happens when you have a good production, you can try stuff and they can sometimes appease you,” he continued. “Sometimes they just say, ‘That’s not right.'”

Although Simon survived his first altercation with Negan, he met his maker in the very same episode. When Simon and Dwight met to discuss toppling Negan from his throne, Simon had actually been set up by Dwight, who’d tipped Negan off. Negan appeared from the shadows and overheard the entire conversation – slaughtering Simon’s men and then challenging his lieutenant to fight for leadership of the Sanctuary. Ogg has previously said how he’d wanted a “dirty” street fight between Simon and Negan, but in the end, the pair fought in front of a room full of Saviors.

Ogg joined The Walking Dead in the dramatic Season 6 finale and was eventually promoted to series regular. While there were plans to kill Simon off in the Season 8 premiere, the character survived to become a secondary antagonist and play a major part in the Survivor-Savior war. When it came to his eventual death, Ogg admitted that it was a compromise between what he and Jeffrey Dean Morgan wanted, as well as how director Michael Slovis imagined it.

Airing Sunday, Oct. 4 on AMC, The Walking Dead Season 10 finale stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton, and Cooper Andrews.

(via ComicBook.com)