Negan Smith (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has gone down in history as not only the best villain on The Walking Dead, but arguably even one of the best TV horror drama villains, period. He was a sinister leader who rallied groups of survivors to work under him, calling his merry band of thugs Saviors. Everyone went by the name Negan and every member of the crew followed him blindly and did his bidding. That involved intimidating other communities into trading supplies for “protection.” He was an apocalyptic version of the combination of a mafia boss and cult leader.

He was also the perfect character fans loved to hate. Beneath the surface, he was charming, sardonic, and showed a modicum of morality with rules like being unwilling to harm children. He was a formidable foe for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), proving to be the protagonist’s most challenging adversary. Negan managed to evade death in the end, but not capture. His journey and character arc is one of the most compelling on the long-running AMC show.

Negan Has a Tumultuous Journey on The Walking Dead

When Negan is introduced on The Walking Dead, he’s mentioned by name alone. He isn’t actually seen until that fateful scene when he rounds up Rick and his friends, placing them in a circle on their knees as he takes the spotlight in the middle. He taunts them, deciding which one to kill in retaliation for them entering one of his outposts and viciously murdering his people in their sleep. The moment was teased and drawn out, leaving fans theorizing for months about who would meet the end of Negan’s barbed wire bat Lucille in the seventh season premiere.

The iconic, barbaric moment marks two of the most brutal deaths in The Walking Dead. It proved how heartless, cruel, and sadistic Negan was. Once it happened, fans were reeling for months after.

Negan’s arc as the villain plays out over several seasons as he, now having proven just what he’s capable of and willing to do, taunts Rick and wreaks havoc on the communities, including Alexandria, The Kingdom, and Hilltop. When Rick tries to rally all the communities to fight back instead of bending to Negan’s authoritarian dictatorship, Negan becomes increasingly agitated and shows just how widespread his power is.

Rick and his friends finally get the upper hand after careful planning and convincing of other groups, along with help from Dwayne (Austin Amelio), Negan’s right-hand man, who finally decides to defect. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is especially hellbent on taking Negan down after he took the love of her life and father to her unborn child.

It seemed like it might be lights out for Negan when Rick slashes his throat during a final battle between the two in the season 8 finale entitled “Wrath,” one of the best episodes of that season of The Walking Dead. Negan is dying. But still grieving the loss of Carl (Chandler Riggs), Rick hears his son’s voice repeat words he learned from Siddiq (Avi Nash): “my mercy prevails over my wrath.” Rick orders his team to patch Negan up, much to their shock, and he lives another day. Negan is no longer the antagonist, but he’s alive. And he will suffer in a different way.

The show picks up in Season Nine a year and a half after these events. Many pivotal moments occur, including Rick’s presumed death, the entrance of The Wolves and The Whisperers, and meeting Magna and her group, and Negan is locked away the entire time. He’s trying to make it day by day, but being in solitary confinement is getting to him. Arguably the only thing that keeps him sane are moments of calm and sweetness when Judith (Cailey Fleming) secretly chats with him through the vent about everything from life to her math homework.

Besides that welcome respite from the quiet dullness of his days, Negan has been living a far worse punishment than death. When Maggie sneaks into the basement, determined to murder him, even she sees that he has become a shell of his former self. He’s worse off where he is, and she would only be doing him a favor by killing him.

Negan’s Redemption Arc is a Highlight of The Walking Dead

Negan’s redemption arc is one of the highlights of The Walking Dead, helping solidify the show’s position as one of the best post-apocalyptic TV shows of all time. It begins when he is finally released after years behind bars and tries his best to prove to the group that he has become a changed man. His shining moment is saving Judith (and Dog) in a snowstorm, which earns at least Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) respect. But even that isn’t enough to convince the others that he can be trusted.

Negan fades to the background anyway, because there’s a new, viciously evil and unhinged antagonist in the mix: Alpha (Samantha Morton). Negan tries to offer his counsel on how to deal with her and her group of walker skin-wearing killers. But it falls on deaf ears. It’s Carol (Melissa McBride) who finally decides to give Negan a chance to prove himself, willing to do just about anything to murder the woman who killed her adopted son Henry (Macsen Lintz). She secretly offers him a deal: become a mole within The Whisperers to earn Alpha’s trust, kill her, bring Carol Alpha’s head, and she’ll make sure he’s taken care of.

With nothing to lose, Negan obliges, worms his way in with The Whisperers, and succeeds in the task. Negan still isn’t accepted, but at least everyone is now okay with letting him leave in peace and play out his days on his own.

Not much is known when Negan disappears for a time, but his backstory episode, the finale of Season Ten, entitled “Here’s Negan” provides useful context about his journey. Viewers get to see the “real” Negan and sympathize with his plight. He was, for lack of a better term, a jerk pre-apocalypse too. But when the world collapsed, he did everything he could to protect his wife, Lucille (Hilarie Burton), and help her through her battle with cancer, a seemingly futile effort.

His wife eventually perishes and Negan goes on a murderous rampage to kill those who got in his way, preventing him from getting her chemotherapy treatment in time. This is when the new Negan is born, devoid of feelings, loyal only to his signature barbed-wire bat named after his lost love.

By the end of The Walking Dead, Negan wound up running into the group again. Now with a wife and baby on the way, he goes out of his way to help them, even if reluctantly so. He saves Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller), Maggie’s now pre-teen son, on numerous occasions. In a beautifully karmic full circle moment, he finds himself on his knees at The Commonwealth, begging for mercy for his wife just as Maggie did for Glenn. After they all manage to survive, he sits down with Maggie and, in a heartfelt conversation, finally apologizes for what he did to her all those years ago.

Negan’s Journey Continues in Dead City

Negan re-appears in the spin-off series The Walking Dead: Dead City, which is set five years after the final time jump in The Walking Dead’s series finale. Now in New York for unknown reasons, he and Maggie cross paths once again. She is trying to save Hershel (Logan Kim), now a teenager, who has been kidnapped. She claims that Negan knows the kidnapper and may be the only person to help.

The unlikely duo travel to Manhattan Island to locate the kidnapper, who Negan claims is someone so awful that he banished him from the Saviors. Negan might hope deep down that this will finally make him and Maggie square. But Maggie only has tunnel vision for her son.

The journey wouldn’t be easy, however, as Negan has a marshal for the New Babylon Federation on his tail, looking to have him tried for beating a group of men to death. He had presumably told his wife to leave without him in an effort to protect her and presumably his child.

Negan is still on the “right side,” having become a fan favorite Walking Dead character, despite his heinous misdeeds. His sarcastic tone, dry humor, and menacing persona is still there. It comes out on a few occasions as he and Maggie take down enemies. In fact, when Negan acts like the “old Negan” in a few instances, Maggie looks on horrified, suffering from nightmares about what he did to Glenn.

By the end of the first season of The Walking Dead: Dead City, it’s revealed that Maggie had alternate plans all along. She promised to deliver Negan to the kidnapper in exchange for Hershel. Once Negan learns of this plan, he offers himself up anyway, knowing that it means Hershel will be safe.

But this group doesn’t mean any harm to Negan. In fact, the real leader, a woman who calls herself The Dama (Lisa Emery), has heard stories of Negan and thinks he’s just the man she needs to lead her troops and help her protect her assets. Negan doesn’t want to revert to his old self, likely afraid he’ll get lost in that man again. But when The Dama threatens to harm Hershel if he doesn’t comply, he has no choice. This sets things up for the “old Negan” to return in the already confirmed Season 2, which will be released in 2025.

Thus, while the “new Negan” lives on and “old Negan” has been pushed aside, the terrifying villain could rear his ugly head once again, albeit this time for a noble cause. With the life of a child on the line, the realization that Maggie will never forgive him, and Lucille gone forever, this version of Negan could be a fiercer, more menacing man than fans have ever seen.