Jeffrey Dean Morgan Considered Leaving The Walking Dead After Dead City Season 2

After talking with AMC executives, the actor was persuaded to stay, and a new writer was brought on board for the third season.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan admitted that he almost quit the role of Negan after filming the second season of The Walking Dead: Dead City. Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actor shared that he was unhappy with the direction the writers were taking his character.

According to Morgan, Negan lost his former humor and charisma in the second season, and a significant portion of his storyline boiled down to emotional distress:

“I feel like last year we got so bogged down in season two. Especially Negan—from my point of view, all I did was cry, and he lost his charisma and everything that made him Negan.”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

His dissatisfaction reached a point where, on the final day of filming, Morgan called the head of AMC to declare his intention to leave. The actor was persuaded to stay, and writer Seth Hoffman was brought in to work on the third season after listening to his grievances.

Morgan primarily wanted to change the relationship between Negan and Maggie, which had continued to revolve around their previous conflict for two seasons:

“I remember our first one-on-one conversation. He asked, ‘What do you want? What do you want to do?’ I replied, ‘The dynamic has to change. It can’t just be about her wanting to kill me again, and me trying to talk her out of it, save her son, and keep her from finishing me off. We’ve already been there.’”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Morgan ultimately returned to his role for the third season of Dead City, which premiered on AMC in July. New episodes air weekly, with the fourth episode scheduled to premiere on August 17.

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