The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan Responds to Fan Calls for Negan and Carol Relationship

Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Carol (Melissa McBride) could make for a “very interesting friendship” on The Walking Dead, but Morgan says he’s “shipping” Carol with someone else: her longtime best friend Daryl (Norman Reedus). The proposed ship — Negol? Caregan? — was put forward by fans in the wake of Carol and Negan’s first meeting in Season 10 episode 14, “Look at the Flowers,” where Carol broke Negan out of jail with orders to infiltrate the Whisperers and murder leader Alpha (Samantha Morton). When the “fugitive” was tracked down and ambushed by Daryl, Negan told him: “You talk about silencing the Whisperers, I silenced the Alpha. Why the hell else you think your girlfriend let me out of that cell?”

McBride previously addressed a stoic Daryl’s non-reaction to the quip, and now Morgan has weighed in on what it might mean for Carol and Negan:

“I am one of the Carol-Daryl shippers, so I can’t say I’m gonna go for the Carol-Negan shipping,” Morgan admitted during the virtual Walking Dead Family Hangout. “I think there would be a very interesting friendship, though, so I’m all for that.”

When Reedus was prompted by host Yvette Nicole Brown to address online fervor surrounding Daryl’s nonexistent love life — his prospects include Carol for the “Caryl” ship and Connie (Lauren Ridloff) for the “Donnie” ship — Reedus replied, “It’s not doing him any good, is it? Keep shipping away, because it’s not coming through on my end.”

“[The fans] do that. It’s funny, the whole shipping thing — you’re on the show for a while, and I don’t know if ‘shipping’ was a thing when we first started, but it came in full force,” Reedus added. “I don’t mind it, I think it’s fun. I wouldn’t ship anybody with Negan. Look what happens.”

While not a traditional romance, Negan’s undercover Whisperer role did lead to some freaky deeky with Alpha earlier this season. The “Nalpha” sex scene was part of what Morgan previously referred to as Negan and Alpha’s “weird relationship,” which ended violently when Negan interfered with Alpha’s plans to kill disowned daughter Lydia (Cassady McClincy).

“I don’t think they were in love or anything,” Morgan said about Negan and Alpha on a past episode of Talking Dead. “I know they weren’t in love or anything, but it was also just weird enough that I thought [the kiss] was a very Negan thing to do.”

For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter. The Walking Dead Season 10 finale, “A Certain Doom,” premieres Sunday, October 4 on AMC.