The Walking Dead: Which Negan will we see in 9B?

Old Negan

The preview for season 9 indicates that Negan makes a return trip to the Sanctuary. It might be “home sweet home” for him, but things have changed since the end of All Out War. The Sanctuary has fallen apart in his absence. The Saviors are dead.

But Negan is still Negan. Negan built an army once, and he can do it again.

As a leader, Negan knows how to rally the troops. He knows how to win over loyalty by offering protection and shelter. He has been listening to the news around Alexandria from his prison cell and he can use that knowledge to find people who are tired of the way things are.

New Negan

So much of Negan’s bravado comes from the former villain’s attempts to hide the pain and he guilt he feels about his wife Lucille. He transferred that pain and guilt into a persona, a caricature, because that’s what was needed to take charge of the Saviors. He made up rules and enforced them to keep order, but that doesn’t mean he enjoyed it. And no matter how much a “changed man” he claims to be, he’ll always be the same Negan.

The major difference with New Negan is that he sees that he can play an important role in Alexandria to help keep things together during the fight against the Whisperers. And, perhaps most importantly, he has nowhere else to go.

While it’s true that he’s free, if Negan plays his cards right and demonstrates that he had a chance to leave but didn’t seize upon it, he might gain a little bit of trust from Michonne and the rest of the council. With the threat of the Whisperers bearing down upon the communities, Michonne might seen in Negan a valuable resource, and perhaps even an ally, so if he can behave himself he might find himself free of that jail cell for good.