Here's Negan.
You know him, you love him – or you love to hate him. Negan is the baddie from The Walking Dead that turned good-ish towards the end, becoming a fan favorite and making star Jeffrey Dean Morgan even bigger than before.
He brought intensity to this character and entirely became Negan. The character survived until the end of the series and got his own spinoff with Maggie, titled The Walking Dead: Dead City. Today, we are going to recap Negan's timeline and somehow keep this short. Let's get into it.
Negan’s Name Is First Spoken (Season 6)
While Negan didn't appear in the show until the finale of The Walking Dead Season 6, we heard his name uttered many times during those episodes, specifically by the Saviors, the main group he led.
Negan Finally Appears In The Finale (Season 6)
That Season 6 finale will haunt everyone's minds, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan finally appeared as Negan – and he knocked it out of the park with his portrayal. That cliffhanger had fans on edge for half a year to figure out who died.
Negan Takes Out Abraham And Glenn And Steals Daryl (Season 7)
The premiere of Season 7 brought about the heartbreaking deaths of Glenn and Abraham – and Negan also kidnapped Daryl from Rick because of his insubordination and as a punishment to Rick. The group was truly broken, and Negan had fully established himself as a severe threat.
The Saviors Take Half Of Alexandria’s Supplies (Season 7)
In the fourth episode of The Walking Dead Season 7, Negan arrives with the Saviors to collect Alexandria's supplies. Here, he parades Daryl as his servant, forces Rick to thank him for taking their stuff, and mocks their lives.
Negan Kills Olivia And Spencer, And Imprisons Eugene (Season 7)
Spencer speaks to Negan during the midseason finale regarding Rick’s leadership, but he doesn't like how Spencer is undermining Rick, as much as he hates the guy. He kills Spencer. Rosita tries to shoot Negan out of anger but hits his bat instead. After that, he has one of his buddies kill Olivia and take Eugene hostage as his personal bullet maker since he made the bullet for Rosita.
Negan Tries To Enlist Sasha’s Help, But It Falls Through (Season 7)
Sasha attempts to break into the Savior Compound at the end of Season 7 but is captured. Negan tries to get her on his side, but she takes a cyanide pill that kills her, and she turns to a walker as a last-ditch attempt to beat him, even in death.
Rick And Negan Are At War (Season 8)
There is too much that goes on here to discuss in multiple sections. Everyone goes to war. Negan and Rick are all in on destroying each other. Oh, and Carl dies. That's fun to remember...Not.
Negan Is Taken Down By Rick, But Is Left Alive (Season 8)
At the end of Season 8, Rick finally takes Negan down in a standoff but decides to let him live, trying to honor Carl's last wish and build a better world. Maggie is noticeably upset by this. Rick has Negan’s throat sewed up and intends to keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
Years Pass, Negan Is Kept As Prisoner (Season 9)
The time skip from the end of Season 8 to the beginning of Season 9 is about a year and a half, and Negan has been a prisoner the whole time. He hasn't been buddy-buddy with anyone, either.
Negan Escapes But Is Brought Back To Alexandria By Judith (Season 9)
Fast forward years later again, after Rick is long gone, Negan escapes because someone accidentally left his cell open when visiting him. He doesn't harm anything while he's out there, but Judith stops him – and takes him back to Alexandria.
Negan Saves Judith During The Big Storm (Season 9)
The big storm at the end of Season 9 saw Negan in a heroic moment, where he went out to save Judith and Dog from a blizzard.
Negan Meets Lydia (Season 10)
At this point, Negan is doing more community service as well as staying in the cell, and he meets Lydia. She is the daughter of Alpha, the leader of the Whisperers, and is bullied constantly by the other kids. Negan acts as her protector for some time.
Negan Is Let Loose Secretly By Carol To Kill Alpha (Season 10)
Carol's adoptive son, Henry, was killed by Alpha and the Whisperers in Season 9, and now she wants revenge as part of her timeline. She secretly collaborates with Negan and lets him out so he can seduce Alpha and then kill her. He does so successfully, delivering Alpha’s head.
Negan Works Together With Alexandria To Take The Whisperers Down (Season 10)
After killing Alpha, Negan also works with Alexandria to take the rest of the Whisperers down, including the new leader, Beta. We get some sick flights from this.
Maggie Is Forced To Live With Negan Walking Free (Season 10)
Negan has earned his place at Alexandria with many people after how much he helped with the Whisperers, but not with Maggie. Remember that.
Negan Leaves The Group After The Reapers Battle And Finds New Folk – Including A Wife (Season 11)
The Reapers Arc is something we can skip over entirely because it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Negan helped out during that time, but since tensions were so thick with Maggie, he left alone and found a new group – and a new wife, Annie.
Negan Once Again Works With Alexandria, This Time To Take Down The Commonwealth (Season 11)
Negan decides to team up with Maggie, Alexandria, and Hilltop to take down the Commonwealth, since he’s pretty good with this war thing and wants to keep his new family safe. Afterward, Negan and Maggie have a long conversation in the emotional finale about how she wants to move past her hatred for him because she knows he's trying. She can't forgive him, but she wants to be better.
Negan Is On The Run From New Babylon (Dead City, Season 1)
Several years have passed in The Walking Dead: Dead City. Negan is now on the run from the capital city of New Babylon of the New Babylon Federation. Why? Because the marshals there beat and robbed his wife, so he killed them. Typical Negan behavior, honestly.
Maggie And Negan Head To NYC To Find Her Kidnapped Son (Dead City, Season 1)
Maggie finds Negan and says she wants to bring him to NYC to find a man named the Croat to get her son, Hershel Rhee, back, who was kidnapped by the person she's looking for. This is where Dead City really begins.
Negan Is Betrayed By Maggie To The Croat In Order To Retrieve Her Son (Dead City, Season 1)
During Dead City, Negan and Maggie seem to be making some progress in their strange partnership, but Maggie betrays him in the Season 1 finale to trade him to the Croat to get Hershel back. Negan is understandably a bit peeved, but he doesn't let it stop the trade because he cares about the kid.
Negan Is Forced To Bring Communities Together For A War In Order To Keep Hershel Rhee Safe (Dead City, Season 1)
The last scene we see is Negan speaking to The Dama, an ally of the Croat who wants him to help unite several communities in Manhattan in a war against the New Babylon Federation. The Dama threatens that Hershel can be kidnapped again if he doesn't cooperate.
While Negan has been presenting himself as “not a bad guy," it feels as if he might need to embrace his bad side again to keep Hershel safe.
His story is far from over, and I have a feeling that Dead City Season 2 will only up the drama. Are you ready to see Negan become a leader again?
