Even after trading his baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire for the Destination X bus, Jeffrey Dean Morgan still seems to have Lucille on his mind.
Every week, all of Europe becomes Morgan's "real life game board" as the players flex their extensive knowledge of geography, pop culture and history, as well as their unique social skills to form alliances, manipulate fellow players, and ultimately, figure out where the X they are in hopes of taking home the $250,000 prize.
On the third episode of NBC’s new competition reality show, the mischievous host appeared to drop a playful hint to his leather-clad character from The Walking Dead while introducing the contestants to their next game.
“How will this epic challenge decide who is going into the map room? Well, people tend to get nervous when I have a wooden stick in my hand,” he teased, seemingly referencing Lucille, before adding, “It’s a game of croquet, of course.”
It’s no surprise that The Boys actor is still thinking about Negan’s iconic bat while working on other projects. Morgan admitted in a July 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly that he's felt a certain kinship with the prop ever since he made his chilling TWD debut on "The Last Day on Earth."
“There’s something about holding that bat in a scene that makes me feel whole,” he explained at the time. “There is a relationship that I will forever have with that piece of wood wrapped in barbed wire — that I will have as Jeff … I really bonded in an odd way to this object. And it indicated so much of what I did as an actor.”
Despite saying his final goodbyes to the bat in the The Walking Dead season 10 episode "Here's Negan," Morgan recently got the chance to act with the prop again in Dead City season 2. In "Power Equals Power," The Croat (Željko Ivanek) gifted him a new version of his signature weapon in hopes of coaxing out the brutal old Negan he once knew - and it had some shocking improvements.
Negan first tried out Lucille 2.0's upgrades that same episode when he attempted to recruit other groups of survivors in Manhattan to fight alongside the Burazi as war against the New Babylon Federation loomed. But Negan lacked the jovial passion and villainous flair he had when he led the Saviors and it was clear he was losing his audience. Sensing he needed to up the ante, he baited Christos (Jake Weary) into grabbing hold of the weapon. It immediately crackled to life with electricity and the man was thrown to the ground.
"You see, power equals power. It’s as simple as that. So if you aren’t with us, I guess you’re in for a bit of a shock."Negan
If fans are confused how Morgan went from playing one of the most famous big bads in recent television history to starring as the host of the reality tv show – so is he!
“I'm still not actually completely sure how the h*** this happened,” he said in an interview with People. “I am not like a typical host ... I'm a bit on the crass side and I've got a very sarcastic sense of humor, and I didn't picture it.”
However, Morgan revealed that the producers eventually convinced him that they didn't want him to be anyone but himself on the show.
"I spent a month and a half in Europe being a weird, fun host, and it was great," he continued. "I had so much fun being the ringmaster of the circus."
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