Who Has Had A Bigger Impact On The Walking Dead: Negan Or Ezekiel?

When season seven of The Walking Dead premiered, Negan’s impact was felt across the globe. Not only did he execute two of the most beloved characters on the show, but he did it with a charm and delight that sent chills up your spine.

Just from one episode, and a small monologue at the end of last season, Negan instantly became the most hated villain on television.

That’s kind of impact isn’t easily paralleled, but it seems as though one character may have topped it just a week later.

In the midst of all the doom and gloom surrounding The Walking Dead, King Ezekiel gave fans hope after his recent debut on the AMC series.

In the second episode of the series, titled The Well, Morgan and Carol are introduced to the leader of a community called The Kingdom. The King puts on a lot of theatrics, but he charmed the pants off of fans everywhere.

Not only that, but Khary Payton’s performance as Ezekiel was a carbon copy of the comic character. Negan may have been pretty close, but Ezekiel is exactly what every comic character dreamed he would be.

Both of these characters were thrust into The Walking Dead universe at an importants time, and both look to have a lasting impact with fans, as well as other characters.

So, the questions remains: Which of these characters had a bigger impact?

On the one hand, you’ve got Negan. The show has never had a villain this horrifying, and it probably never will again. He took away two of the most important characters of the series in his first full episode, one of which had been around since the series premiere. No one character has ever entered into a TV show this late into the game and sent the kind of waves that Negan did.

At least, no one until Ezekiel.

After Negan’s brutality took fans to a darker place than they ever wanted to go, Ezekiel was able to bring them right back out of it. His humor, joy, and outlook on life is such a positive message of hope, and audiences needed that following such a tragedy. To be able to appear on the show, without the build-up like Negan received, and single-handedly convince fans the show is still worth watching; that’s a feat that could only be reached by a king.

Many fans said they were done with the show after Negan killed Glenn and Abraham. They said the series was too dark and gruesome to endure any longer. When they gave The Walking Dead one more chance, Ezekiel’s presence kept them in for another week. His happiness alone was enough to hook you all over again.

When you really break it down, it’s tough to say who’s impact was actually bigger. Negan broke the hearts of millions, while Ezekiel only needed one episode to completely repair them.

Negan may have a slight edge here, because he did manage to alter the entire framework of the series. His breaking of Rick steered the group onto a completely different course. Ezekiel is changing the likes of Morgan and Carol, but that’s a slower process, and a more positive one.

So, Negan may have had the more profound introduction, but Ezekiel is still changing the world a little at a time.