The Walking Dead Is Bringing Back One of Its Greatest Villains

The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple reveals a project about "one of the great Walking Dead villains of all time" is in development at AMC Networks. In the first decade of The Walking Dead, the group of zombie apocalypse survivors led by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) has fought the dead and feared the living — including Woodbury leader the Governor (David Morrissey), Terminus cannibal Gareth (Andrew J. West), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his Saviors, and Alpha (Samantha Morton) and Beta (Ryan Hurst) of the skin-wearing Whisperers. All have died, save for Negan, and any one of them could be returning to the expanding Walking Dead Universe.

"We're working on something with one of the great Walking Dead villains of all time, and it's coming together," Gimple said during The Walking Dead Holiday Special, now streaming on AMC+.

The Walking Dead has already wrapped production on "Here's Negan," one of six new extended season 10 episodes coming early in 2021. "Here's Negan" is inspired by the comic book prequel of the same name and reveals Negan's never-before-told origin story, flashing back to before the zombie apocalypse with cancer-stricken wife Lucille (guest star Hilarie Burton Morgan).

Hurst, who played the towering Whisperer Beta in seasons 9 and 10 of The Walking Dead, hinted at his character's origin story coming to light in Tales of the Walking Dead. The episodic anthology created by Gimple will bring back dead characters and take place throughout the so-far decade-long apocalypse, telling all-new stories with past characters.

Gimple could be hinting at the return of the Governor, a.k.a. Philip Blake, who terrorized the survivors when they holed up inside a Georgia prison. Among his many kills are Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) and Hershel (Scott Wilson), as well as causing the death of Andrea (Laurie Holden).

Morrissey has repeatedly expressed his willingness to return to the world of The Walking Dead. The actor references unused material from Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga's novel series — The Rise of the Governor, The Road to Woodbury, and The Fall of the Governor — telling the future villain's rich backstory.

"Obviously, The Walking Dead comes from a graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman. There's three novels within that: The Rise of the Governor, The Road to Woodbury, and The Fall of the Governor. They are brilliant stories," Morrissey said in an interview over the summer. "If I returned, I'd love to return, in a filmic way, to tell those stories."

He added: "I think there's something to be told. There's stories to be told in those novels that I think are really fascinating."

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. All three shows from The Walking Dead Universe return with new episodes in 2021 on AMC.