The Walking Dead’s Josh McDermitt Reveals Eugene’s True Motives

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 11 follow.Eugene Porter is a chameleon. The […]

September 5, 2017, 7:59pm

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 11 follow.

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Eugene Porter is a chameleon. The character blends in with whichever community or people will help him survive on a moment’s notice. It was never more clear than in the Hostiles and Calamities episode of The Walking Dead on Sunday night.

After being taken prisoner by Negan in The Walking Dead‘s midseason finale, Eugene adventured through the Sanctuary in Episode 7×11. What started as a scared endeavor became a smile-filled night with wives and pickles for Eugene.

Has Eugene gone to the dark side? Josh McDermitt was posed that question directly in an interview with EW and, while he won’t share exactly what’s going on, he’s willing to offer a bit of insight to Eugene’s current situation

“I don’t know. McDermitt said. “I have ideas, but I’m not going to share those. These are secrets that I need to keep as an actor. Because everyone was asking me, even on set, they’re like, ‘WHOA!’ Andrew Lincoln said it was one of his favorite episodes of the series. He would call me or text me just about every day. He’s like Really, seriously, what’s up? Has Eugene crossed over?’ I told him I don’t know and I don’t want to know. I even told [showrunner] Scott Gimple, ‘Don’t tell me, because if I know then I’m going to start playing that kind of direction and I don’t want to.’”

The actor prefers to keep Eugene’s plans a surprise. By now, he has already filmed the rest of Season 7, but speaking for the Hostiles and Calimities episode specifically, McDermitt wants to preserve the spoilers.

“I would rather it be a surprise because this was a huge surprise at the end of the episode,” McDermitt said. “When he says ‘I’m Negan,’ I pushed my script back and I threw my arms in the air and went, ‘YES!’ It was such a surprise for me. I loved that, and I want that to be a surprise for everyone else. If I know, then I will start leaning into that a little bit. This is all boring actor talk. The people don’t care. They just want to know if Eugene is playing Negan or not. I get it. I’m not revealing it.”

Eugene only recently leveled up his survival skills by definition of himself and Abraham Ford. Late in Season 6, he helped Daryl, Rosita, and Abraham escape a slew of Saviors who had just killed Denise and were out for blood. It all lead Eugene to evolve and learn that he has to do whatever it takes to preserve his own life.

“He’s struggled with confidence in certain areas of his life as long as we’ve known him,” McDermitt said. “This is probably the most confident thing he’s ever done, is to cut Negan off in the middle of his sentence to say this. It’s interesting. Negan’s got a bat to his face again and he’s very intimidating, and here Eugene just steps up and says it. I love it, man. I’m worried about the backlash from the fans, but we’ll see what happens. I feel like I just got over the fact that he didn’t have the cure to the apocalypse. We’re going to go through this.”