The Walking Dead Fans Vote Shane Walsh As The Best Villain

The Walking Dead fans love to hate villains. Now, they have spoken once an for all.

In a vote which courted attention from tens of thousands of fans of the AMC series, The Walking Dead‘s top 16 villains were ranked on a bracket and one by one eliminated until the favorite villain has been elected. The winner of The Walking Dead’s best villain contest: Shane Walsh.

Shane Walsh was the original bad guy on The Walking Dead. Having a close connection to Rick Grimes and his family, Shane began to lose his morals when Lori and Carl chose to remain loyal to Rick upon learning he was alive. As the world around them continued to become more threatening, Shane wanted to act quickly to dispatch any and all potential threats within gun’s reach while Rick wanted abide by Hershel’s rules and think before acting.

The villainy all came to boiling point when Shane lead Rick into the woods outside of Hershel’s farm with the intention of killing him. Rick managed to talk Shane out of it but ultimately had to kill his former best friend to preserve his own life.

In The Walking Dead‘s official vote, Shane Walsh was pitted against characters some iconic characters. In the first round, he topped Gorman (the creepy police officer at the hospital with Beth). In the second round, Shane beat out newcomer villain Jadis who betrayed Rick as recently as the Season 7 finale. It was the third round where Shane earned his most impressive victory — he edged the leader of the Saviors, Negan himself.

In the championship round’s voting, Shane Walsh was pitted against the Governor and smacked him around for an 88% to 12% victory at the polls.

Ironically enough, Negan took home some hardware for being the ‘Best Villain’ at the MTV Movie and TV Awards on Sunday night.

(Poll/image via The Walking Dead)

MORE WALKING DEAD: Negan’s Backstory Reveals Completely Different Character / What TWD Comic’s Shocking Death Means For TV / TWD F-Take Clips With Rick And Daryl / Robert Kirkman Writes Apology For Killing Fan-Favorite Character / TWD Casting Two New Characters

The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season in October of 2017. The first trailer is expected to arrive at San Diego Comic Con in July. For complete coverage and insider info all off-season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.