‘The Walking Dead’ Star Opens Up About Negan’s Latest Kill

The Walking Dead saw Negan execute a certain member of his group on Sunday night, sending shockwaves through the Saviors with only one episode remaining in Season Eight.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 8×15, Worth, follow!

Starting out as Negan’s right-hand man, Simon’s role evolved over his two seasons on The Walking Dead into one which was hungry for the Savior leader’s throne. As it turns out, though, Simon actor Steven Ogg was never aware his character would become such a prominent character to the point that Negan would have to kill him to maintain his own power.

“Like pretty much everything, it’s, ‘Oh, this is what’s happening now!’” Ogg told ComicBook.com. “As you go along, there was never a master plan, there was never a master arc, there was never a, ‘This is what’s gonna happen.’ I think Simon, initially, was just gonna honestly be someone who introduced Negan.”

It wasn’t until executive producer (and director of Ogg’s first two episodes on the AMC show, coincidentally) Greg Nicotero spoke up about the actor’s abilities that his role got beefed up.

“I think, largely, Nicotero was a fan and supported the fact of, ‘Hey, I think we got someone here who can give some interesting character,’” Ogg said. “I was just thinking it might have been just that. I was someone who revealed the big man, you know? Pulled back the curtain to show Oz. I thought that was gonna be my… That was it. Then, it grew bit by bit, a little more, and all of the sudden, he became this right hand man.”

As for the scene which saw Ogg off, the actor had a rough day on set with Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Although the duel in the Sanctuary lasted merely 190 seconds, crafting the dialogue, the fight, and Negan’s claim of “What an a–hole,” took about 12 hours on set. Still, it wasn’t quite as dangerous of having to duke it out with Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes.

“I know Andrew and [Jeffrey] have connected,” Ogg said. “I know Pollyanna [McIntosh] has connected with Jeffrey. We never connected. I think we initially were thinking our stuntmen would do a lot more but as I got into it, I was like, ‘Nah, I wanna do this man.’ So, it felt really good. The stuntmen, I don’t think, were as used as I thought they would be.”

As is tradition, the cast of The Walking Dead came out to bid Ogg farewell as the fight sequence was his last day on set, but he did have to share the spotlight as the traditional “death dinner.”

“Andrew came out, which was lovely,” Ogg said. “Norman [Reedus] came. Everyone was wearing mustaches, which was quite cute. Simon-staches. The crew, which was lovely, and Gale [Anne Hurd] and Tom [Luse]. It was a lovely turnout. The death dinner, there was a couple of events going on that evening, so my death dinner was intermingled with something else. I think it might have been Lennie’s crossover, so I didn’t get my very own solo death dinner, but that was fine.”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. Fear the Walking Dead will debut its fourth season after The Walking Dead concludes its eighth, at 10 pm ET on April 15. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.