The Walking Dead: Will Carol Meet Negan in Season 10?

Carol (Melissa McBride) could finally meet Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in The Walking Dead Season 10. Following the collapse of her fairy tale life with now ex-husband King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) at the Kingdom, a side effect of the death of son Henry (Matt Lintz), Carol is again living at Alexandria. It's there Negan has spent nearly eight years as Alexandria's sole prisoner, and an ongoing feud with Alpha (Samantha Morton) and the Whisperers is allowing Negan, already sometimes uncaged on "work release," to stretch his legs outside his jail cell. Carol has set her sights on Alpha, responsible for the murder of her son, and the unavoidable battle in the survivors' future just might bring Carol and Negan together.

McBride once teased a divergence from the comic books, where it was Negan who took out Alpha as part of an effort to convince Alexandria he was on their side. On Talking Dead, McBride speculated what would happen if Negan were unleashed against Alpha and the Whisperers. "Is this a way for him to redeem himself to take her out," she said, "for the people that he has come to perhaps really, really like?"

Negan already stuck his neck out to rescue Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming) from a blizzard, and put himself at risk a second time helping a temporarily blinded Aaron (Ross Marquand) fend off attacking walkers. What happens when Carol comes face-to-face with the ex-Savior leader who once brutally murdered Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun)?

"I'm not really sure, I really can't wait. I'm really loving his character though, he's very funny," McBride said. "I think he's just enjoying himself. But you know, all that Carol knows about him is he's this guy that killed Glenn and Abraham, that was him, that was the head of the Sanctuary people. And she's kind of put down a lot of his former followers, so... what is gonna happen?"

Now that Carol is obsessed with revenge against Alpha to the point of engaging in self-destructive behaviors, she might be willing to let bygones be bygones if it means ending the Whisperer threat.

We also know Carol will be spending much of her time this season with Daryl (Norman Reedus), who will be forced to partner up with Negan against the Whisperers.

"I like what Jeffrey's doing with the character this year. It's a completely different character than we've seen before," Reedus teased during San Diego Comic-Con over the summer. "I think there's a mutual understanding between those two characters. I think they might need each other at some point. It's such a weird world, 'cause some of the bad guys are the good guys, and the good guys are the bad guys, and everybody thinks they're doing the right thing. I mean, we've all killed people. We've all done crazy things, so maybe there will be a time where we need him."

Morgan has since teased sharing scenes with co-stars he's had little-to-no interaction with — another potential hint we'll see Negan and Carol meet for the first time.

"Negan didn't get to work with a lot of people [in past seasons]. I did a lot of stuff with Andy [Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes], and then Danai [Gurira, who plays Michonne], Seth [Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel], and then that's kind of it," Morgan said on a recent episode of Talking Dead. "I'm sharing a scene with [Reedus], which was so much fun. Yeah, Negan's out there. You're gonna see him interacting with some people that he's never met before, it's great."

New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sundays at 9/8c on AMC. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.