Can Maggie Ever Forgive Negan? The Walking Dead Star Says “A Big No”

Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) went his own way to start over on The Walking Dead, but one star says there’s no starting fresh for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) or Aaron (Ross Marquand). Knowing Maggie could never forgive him for murdering Glenn (Steven Yeun), and knowing it’s only a matter of time until Maggie does to him what she did to the Reapers, Negan walked away from Maggie. Six months later, their paths crossed again when Negan returned with a new group and saved Aaron and Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) from Toby Carlson’s (Jason Butler Harner) rogue squad of Commonwealth troopers. 

When ComicBook asked Marquand if Aaron might ever forgive Negan now that the former villain has twice saved his life, Marquand answered, “I don’t think he can.” 

“I mean, I think Aaron and Maggie are very much alike in this regard. Listen, I think Aaron has more than tolerated Negan over the last few seasons,” Marquand said with a laugh in our exclusive “Warlords” postmortem. “I mean, there’s so many times where he certainly could have killed him, [like] when they were off on their own little private mission when Aaron got partially blinded for a second from the hogweed. I’m a big fan of forgiveness, I know Aaron is a big fan of forgiveness as well, but I think there’s just some things like the killing of a loved one, the insane, unnecessary, totally unfathomable and inexcusable killing of a loved one for no other reason than just to intimidate.” 

After spending nearly a decade behind bars at Alexandria, Negan became a free man when Carol (Melissa McBride) enlisted him to assassinate Alpha (Samantha Morton) and help end The Whisperer War. Negan may have escaped Maggie’s wrath for now, but he’ll confront the consequences of his actions when Maggie and Negan are trapped with Annie’s (Medina Senghore) group of Riverbenders in Sunday’s “The Rotten Core.”

For now, Marquand says Maggie and Aaron are tolerating Negan “for the greater good.” 

“I don’t think Aaron or Maggie will ever be able to fully forgive Negan and that’s okay. There’s just some wounds that are too deep,” he said. “But I do think Aaron has shown, and Maggie has certainly shown, that they can fight alongside him and certainly tolerate him for the greater good, if it means the greater good and not just Negan’s good. And I am genuinely happy that Negan has gotten a redemption arc of sorts for the last few seasons, because it’s nice to see that person who was so terrible in seasons prior really changed into a different person and a better human.”

“Whether or not Aaron or Maggie will ever forgive him,” Marquand added, “I think it’s pretty safe to say that it’s a big no. But yeah, it’s cool to see him change and grow as much as he has.” 

Explaining the new Negan on Talking Dead, showrunner Angela Kang said it’s Negan’s distrust towards Maggie that made him abandon Alexandria and start over with another group. 

“We felt like with that headspace, he really went into the world feeling like, ‘I’m just going to start over,’ whatever that looks like,” Kang said. “But we know that Negan is a social animal, he really likes to have people to talk to, so it felt to us like he would fall in with a group. He would probably pretty quickly make himself invaluable to some people. It felt like if he falls in with a completely different group and there’s no baggage there, he really is in a different headspace where he realizes, ‘If I can wipe the slate clean, can I make some choices that are different this time around? Can I? Have I changed? Can I change?’” 

Read our full spoilers Q&A with Ross Marquand. Morgan and Cohan’s NYC-set Negan and Maggie spinoff, Isle of the Dead, premieres in 2023 on AMC. 

Follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter and @NewsOfTheDead for TWD Universe coverage all season long. New episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season Part 2 of 3 air Sundays on AMC and AMC+.