The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan Thinks A Negan Prequel Would Be Fun

It would be great to get to know The Walking Dead‘s Negan before he became a bat-wielding, head bashing, post-apocalyptic murderer – and Jefferey Dean Morgan agrees.

We already know what life was like before the world ended for the rest of the cast, but what about Negan? Maybe he was a loving, church-going family man that was forced to evolve into a ravaging lunatic in order to survive the current situation.

In a recent interview with EW, Morgan explains that it would be fun to do a Negan prequel and what his character was like before the madness:

“I think he was probably a little bit of an a–hole and a little bit of a bully. I don’t think this all just came about after the apocalypse. It would be fun to do a prequel to who Negan was. I know [creator Robert Kirkman] has been writing this before-we-know-Negan graphic novel. He’s releasing little pieces of it now.”

Oh, apparently Negan was always a bit of a jerk, but hopefully not as brutal as he is now:

“I think Negan’s always been the dick you went to high school with. But he also has a razor sharp sense of humor, which goes hand-in-hand with this sort of bullying he does — it’s all with a sharp wit. Here’s the thing with Negan: He’s going to make you laugh. Even through the worst of it, you will find yourself smiling against your will. And I think that’s exactly how he was as a kid and through high school and stuff. That’s how we’re playing him, anyway. That’s how I’m going at it. He didn’t turn into this in one day. He’s been working at it for a while.”

But do we really want to see an entire Walking Dead spinoff series about 15-year-old tough guy Negan bullying high school kids in gym class? There has to be so much more to his mythos than that and fans are eager to find out.

Little does Jeffrey Dean Morgan know that ComicBook.com has already thought of the perfect Negan-focused prequel that explores his path to becoming a warlord – you can read about it below:

Warlords

Like Breaking Bad, the joy of watching a Walking Dead spinoff centered on one or two people’s winding path to warlord status in the zombie apocalypse world would be seeing their slow-burn (and bloody) descent down the dark path. It would be for noble enough reasons at first, before eventually these “good people” would compromise themselves so much that eventually they become something twisted, and horrible.

Better Call Saul has shown the way to do a spinoff that works as a prequel, interquel and sequel to the main story. A Walking Dead: Warlords series could pick two or three main characters and follow that format, with episodes built thematically around events in their respective pasts, their present action, and flash-forwards to the demagogues, fascists and/or butchers they eventually become.

To read more about The Walking Dead spinoffs that fans want to see, click here.

The Walking Dead season 7 premiere airs Sunday October 23 on AMC.