The Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead is finally only days away. We'll soon be able to stop our months of speculating about which of the good guys was beaten to a bloody pulp by new bad guy Negan. According to Norman Reedus, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been so fantastically terrifying as Negan that he's comparable to one of the most legendary villains of all time. Reedus claims that Negan has a lot in common with the Joker of Batman fame, saying this:
He's a prick but you know, I have to say, Jeffrey's killing it --- no pun intended. He's great. He's super charismatic, and he's enjoying being this jerk way too much, as a matter of fact. You know, it's a real blessing we have him on the show. He's brought so much new energy to this show, and that character is like the Joker. It has to be great, and he's delivering, and everyone likes him, and he's fun. He's a cool guy and everything, but in the moment, everyone wants to fucking kill him, and then we wrap, and we're all having fun again. So he's a great addition to the show.
Considering there has been chatter and speculation from Walking Dead comic fans about Negan since the very beginning of the series, Norman Reedus definitely has a point that the show's version needs to be exceptionally horrifying. If there is one character other than perhaps Rick that the show needs to nail, it's Negan, and that is definitely comparable to the Joker. Sure, Bruce Wayne is the star of any Batman franchise, but a hero is only as awesome as his villain is awful. Besides, it sounds like the differences between Negan and Rick are more or less going to stem from how they reacted to the end of civilization, similarly to how the Joker has opined that he and Batman's differences go back to how they dealt with their "one bad day."
Jeffrey Dean Morgan has gone on the record to say he believes that Negan doesn't consider himself a villain. The idea that Rick and Negan both see the other as the villain in this chapter of the zombie apocalypse story paints an intriguing picture of what we'll see out of the two men in Season 7. Rick has certainly strayed from the straight and narrow path over the years; is he really that different from Negan? He hasn't beaten anybody to death with a baseball bat, but he did rip a bad guy's neck out with his teeth. He was justified in that case; Negan may see himself as perfectly justified in this case. Norman Reedus' tease to EW about what kind of character Negan will be is a solid reason to get excited about what's to come.
The Walking Dead finally returns to the airwaves on Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m. ET with the forebodingly titled "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" Season 7 premiere. Tune in to see just who got the face full of Lucille and decide for yourself whether or not Negan and the Joker have much in common as bad guys. Check out our TV schedule to see what else you can catch on the small screen this fall. In addition, you can find out more about Season 7, here.
