The Walking Dead: Why a Negan and Judith friendship works
As The Walking Dead moves six years into the future, an unlikely friendship has developed between young Judith Grimes and Negan, and it makes sense.
Six years into the future on The Walking Dead and Negan is still in his jail cell as the new Alexandria flourishes all around him. Though he’s stuck in the cell, there seems to be a bright spot in his world because young Judith Grimes is seen talking to the former leader of the Saviors in the preview for upcoming episodes, and this is intriguing.
Seeing Negan talking with Judith in the preview is exciting because Judith might be taking over Carl’s role from the comics. Carl and Negan develop a rapport in the comics, and with the landscape changing so much on the show it makes sense for her to take over Carl’s arc.
It could have been possible for Henry to take Carl’s place in the story, but Henry has too much history with Negan and the Saviors. Judith makes a lot of sense to develop a relationship with Negan because she doesn’t have the ties to the past that Henry does. Michonne might have told her stories about Negan, but after almost eight years of confinement Negan isn’t a major risk. And Negan doesn’t hurt children. It’s not in his modus operandi.
If anything, Negan might be a good sounding board for Judith. The preview shows Michonne being in charge, which no doubt takes up a lot of her time, and so Judith probably doesn’t have a lot of people she can talk to. For her, Negan is a person who will listen unconditionally, and he might even have good advice for her. In the preview she’s telling him about the new people and he already knows she wants to help him, which suggests he has a good sense of who she is. Clearly this isn’t the first conversation they’ve had.
There’s a bigger reason that Negan’s relationship with Judith makes sense, and it’s that Negan knows that the little girl lost her father and brother before she could ever get to know them. Negan can certainly be a bastard, but he isn’t heartless. Carl told him that he killed his mom, and by now he probably knows that Lori’s death took place when Judith was born. Negan might not be a father figure to Judith, but he’s someone who has nothing to lose by offering his friendship to the little girl who is wise beyond her years. (Then again, he might be a father figure in her eyes. Only time will tell.)
And who knows, perhaps having a good relationship with Judith will earn him time off for good behavior. (Let’s face it, at this point he might be useful in some capacity)
Next. New Judith actress no stranger to major franchises. dark
At this point we can only speculate what kind of relationship Negan and Judith might have on The Walking Dead based on a brief moment in the previews, but it’s enough to start us thinking about the possibilities. And having Negan there to support Judith might not be a bad thing. Regardless, getting to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan play opposite newcomer Cailey Fleming will be a lot of fun.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.