The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln Thinks Negan Will Appear In Not-Too-Distant Future

While it took more than two years -- probably closer to three -- for Negan to appear in the pages [...]

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While it took more than two years -- probably closer to three -- for Negan to appear in the pages of Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's The Walking Dead after Rick Grimes and company arrived in Alexandria, series lead Andrew Lincoln believes AMC's TV version probably won't wait that long.

"There are astonishingly brilliant and thrilling characters that I am convinced we would be idiots not to meet in our journey; I would be very surprised if we don't see Negan on the horizon in the not-too-distant future," Lincoln told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview. "What struck me, that I've always been excited about, is we're coming into the sixth season of this show ... and it's the medieval part of The Walking Dead comic, where you realize that there are these isolated communities but don't really know other ones exist. But they're all building and forming themselves with their own image. And then there's a clash of those communities. That, to me, is really interesting and when it gets really exciting with all the action. It turns into this insane, near-apocalyptic landscape that we've never seen before. That is almost a reimagining and a restart for society and humanity. And that is such a rich thing to tell."

Negan's presence in the comic changed the dynamic significantly; while from #69 to #100 or so, Rick and company struggled first to fit in with the Alexandria community and then to lead it, from the time Negan murdered a major character in #100 the whole book became about plotting, and then fighting, for justice. The long-running "All-Out War" story in particular was very fighting-heavy, and at the end, there was another major status quo change in the form of a time jump.

Once Negan's here, in other words, the TV writers would have to create some new storylines to keep the series from catching up with the material presented in the comics, since after he arrived the comic often indulge in protracted battle sequences, which would likely not take as much time onscreen as they did on the page.

The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC.

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