The Walking Dead Season 11: Jeffrey Dean Morgan Shares New Negan Updates

In the midseason premiere of The Walking Dead Season 11, Jeffrey Dean Morgan explains his character Negan's decision to leave the gang.

Negan hit another big turning point in his character during the midseason premiere No Other Way, which aired on Feb. 20. He saw Maggie (Lauren Cohan) wreak terrible revenge on a bunch of Reapers, demonstrating how cold-blooded the character has become at this point. When he saw this, he recognized that, despite their truce, Maggie would never forgive him for killing her husband.

This causes him to split from the group of survivors he has been working with up to this point, informing Maggie that he will not let her do to him what she did to the Reapers.

What's Next for Negan in The Walking Dead Season 11?

Morgan spoke about Negan's decision to leave in an interview with Insider. He says that because Negan and Maggie have "been on their journey this year and spent a lot of time together," nothing can surprise him any longer. His decision to flee is motivated only by self-preservation, but Morgan indicates that this will not be the last time The Walking Dead crew sees him.

“I don't know [what’s next]. I didn't see any notes on if I can talk about that or not. We're always under the veil of secrecy here at The Walking Dead,” Morgan told the publication.

“I can tell you that Negan's gonna walk off and when he reappears, he's gonna have a mysterious friend with him. We will find out more then.”

Are You Excited for Negan’s Return?

Negan first appeared on the show in Season 6 Episode 16, Last Day on Earth. For a time, he was the show's main antagonist, killing off Glenn, one of the show's long-running key characters, in a particularly horrific manner.

Given that Negan only has a half-season left on The Walking Dead, he'll almost certainly return shortly. This is especially true given that the mysterious stranger he brings is new to the story, unless she is a grown-up character who has already been introduced. Unless they only want to set her up for one of the show's many forthcoming spinoffs, they'll have to devote some time to her development before airing the series finale.