The Walking Dead: Gimple talks Negan

Negan is coming! We know he has colorful language, but Scott M. Gimple of The Walking Dead, gives us more insight on the highly anticipated character.

Even those of us who are not The Walking Dead comic readers know that Negan is coming and know about Lucille and a few of her victims in Kirkman’s comics. We know that Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been cast and we know to be excited and afraid.

Scott Gimple is very adept at expressing himself, usually providing us enough cryptic words to excite us without giving away too much. He did just that again when he talked to TVLine about Negan.

Gimple told TVLine that they really want to get Negan right. He talked about Negan in comparison to the Governor in some fascinating ways that make me really curious about Negan. Gimple seems to have tremendous respect for Kirkman’s creation.

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“In my opinion, The Governor is more despicable and damaged. Negan is terrifying in that he isn’t a psychopath. He’s charismatic and funny. And even sort of friendly. But he just kills, and it doesn’t bother him. He’s the star of his own movie and we’re all Red Shirts. He’s not nuts. But you can’t reason with him because he’s got it all worked out. He knows exactly the way the world works. And he’s the one in control. Negan also has a bizarre sense of empathy. He actually recognizes your bad luck in you running into him, yet it doesn’t change a damn thing. Robert [Kirkman] has created one of the great pop culture characters of the past 20 years. And we desperately want to get him right.”

The idea that Negan has empathy and is funny and friendly is interesting to me. I know the Governor was supposed to be considered charasmatic, but I never saw it. I wonder how Negan’s charm will translate.

Gimple described seeing Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan for the first time with the costume designer as “bizarre, because it was a long time coming.”

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