The Walking Dead's Negan is a character that seems primed for premium cable channels, as opposed to a place like AMC, where censors still dictate the sights and sounds. As brutal as the character gets with his bat Lucille, he's arguably more offensive on the comic page thanks to his style of conversation leaning quite heavy on dropping F-bombs a-plenty. And fans will be pumped to know we might get to hear an epic "fuck" or two in The Walking Dead's action-packed Season 8 during live episodes.
Now, there are no guarantees just yet that the swear-happy Negan will get to go all-out with language during the All Out War with Rick & Co., but there are several signs that such a thing will occur. For one, AMC allowed another comic-to-TV adaptation, Preacher, get away with an F-bomb during Season 2 -- I'll likely never forget the line and delivery of "Because I'm Adolf Fucking Hitler!" -- and Halt and Catch Fire just recently closed out an episode with Joe dropping one. But perhaps the most convincing sign came during the latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead, in which the conflicted Nick reacted to a terrifying situation with a "Fuck" utterance, which was the first time the Walking Dead universe got an F-bomb on a live TV airing.
And when ComicBook.com spoke with Fear the Walking Dead showrunner Dave Erickson about it, he revealed that AMC has apparently loosened up on things. (Not much, but still.) In his words:
You get a specific number of curse words you can say, and then there's a list of what you can and can't do. I think it was our script coordinator who told me there was an email had come up; there had been a memo saying we could now say 'fuck' twice over the course of an entire season.
Walking Dead comic fans know that Negan is capable of saying "fuck" twice just as a way of telling someone hello, so getting this update isn't going to allow things to resemble the source material too closely. But considering how ingrained that foul mouth is with Negan, it's absolutely better than nothing. It's true The Walking Dead's Season 6 Blu-ray set gave viewers a chance to relive Negan's big introduction with an alternative take where he got to curse willy nilly, but the Season 7 Blu-ray set didn't deliver on any of the moments that were reportedly filmed where Jeffrey Dean Morgan got to go nuts with it. Had that release done so, we might not be so anxious to see more from that loose-lipped side of his performance.
Knowing The Walking Dead TV show will likely split the two "fuck" allowances into separate moments across the length of Season 8, I still want to hear this line in its entirety. (Even though it's technically three uses.)
This is my Excalibur! My flashing invincibility star! My can of motherfucking spinach! You are fucking fucked, Jolly Green!
The Walking Dead will kick off its highly anticipated All Out War when Season 8 premieres on AMC on Sunday, October 22, at 9:00 p.m. ET. Be sure and head to our [expletive, expletive] fall premiere schedule to see everything else that's hitting the small screen in the near future.
