The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan Says Door Still Open for Negan Spinoff

The Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan says that "no doors are closed" to a Negan spinoff after the extended season 10 reveals the character's origin story in a prequel episode. Morgan and his real-life wife, actress Hilarie Burton, will act together for the first time in an episode drawing from Negan's comic book backstory. Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's 16-chapter miniseries "Here's Negan" reveals the character's beginnings as an unfaithful husband to Lucille, his beloved and cancer-stricken wife, and follows Negan as a lone survivor of the zombie apocalypse who comes to lead an organized group known as the Saviors.

"We shall see. I'd like to think no doors are closed. A great character with many stories to tell," Morgan tweeted when asked if a Negan-centric spinoff is possible after season 10 adapts "Here's Negan." The actor added there's "much still to do here on TWD! Many episodes still to shoot. Right now I'm just excited about that!"

The Negan prequel is one of the six new season 10 episodes currently in production in Georgia amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The bonus episodes, which also take place in the immediate aftermath of the Whisperer War, are slated to air in early 2021 on AMC.

The Walking Dead's eleventh and final season, also starring Morgan, will air another 24 episodes between late 2021 and 2022.

The original season 10 finale, "A Certain Doom," ended with Negan telling Lydia (Cassady McClincy) he's planning to stick around "for now." He's become an uneasy ally for Daryl (Norman Reedus), who saved him from dying at the end of the two knives wielded by Beta (Ryan Hurst), but will face a reckoning now that the widowed Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) has returned.

In the comic books, Negan goes into exile after helping the survivors led by Rick Grimes win the Whisperer War. His solitary existence is interrupted by the arrival of Lucy, a new character, in the one-shot comic book Negan Lives, published a year after the final issue of The Walking Dead.

Morgan has said he hopes to see Here's Negan and Negan Lives come to life on screen, saying he "would love to do" a Negan spinoff movie.

"I'm very lucky to play him, because he's become so well-rounded, and this kind of redemption arc that he's been on has been very interesting to play. And I think the Negan Lives comic book kind of carries that on," Morgan said during the virtual Walking Dead Family Hangout over the summer. "It's a great little story, it's just a little slice of a day in the life of [Negan]. It's great, and I would love to. I always wanted to film that and then the prequel to Negan, there's a comic book for that as well. I'd love to do that."

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Walking Dead returns with new episodes early 2021 on AMC.