Even before Season 5 of The Walking Dead started, showrunner Scott Gimple tweeted that the comic book villain Negan was coming to the TV series, but wouldn’t divulge when. Since then, we’ve had several hints that the notorious bad guy was near, but is Negan’s group, The Saviors, hot on the heels of Rick and the gang, or The Scavengers? Neither is a good option, but if it’s The Saviors and Negan, could another major character death be coming on The Walking Dead ?
Possible TV spoilers and definite comic book spoilers ahead.
By now, you’ve probably already heard which character Negan kills in the comic book, but will The Walking Dead follow the graphic novels and kill a third major character before this season is done? Fans are still reeling from the deaths of Beth (Emily Kinney) and Tyreese (Chad Coleman), but could the Walking Dead writers be that cruel?
Anyone familiar with the show knows the answer to that question is a resounding “Yes.” These guys had a son shoot his mother in the head, a little girl kill her sister, and then had Carol (Melissa McBride) take that little girl out Ol’ Yeller-style. Two of those happened in the same episode.
It’s obvious the writers of The Walking Dead don’t think twice about brutalizing their fans.
“Wolves not far” was ominously painted at the destroyed wall of the Shirewilt Estates community and the area around it strewn with the limbs of butchered bodies. The presumption among Walking Dead fans is the Wolves are a remixed version of one of two groups in the comics, The Scavengers or The Saviors. Given Noah’s mother’s head was bashed in, it looks like someone may have been wielding a baseball bat, according to Wetpaint .
That someone likely being Negan.
In the comic book, Negan kills Glenn (Steven Yeun) with his barbwire-covered baseball bat named Lucille. While the Walking Dead television show has deviated from the comics many times, HNGN reported on rumors back in May that multiple sources on set reported that Glenn’s death scene had been filmed.
If that possibility seems like harsh treatment of Walking Dead fans, think what it would do to Maggie (Lauren Cohan) to lose her husband so soon after losing her sister Beth, who was killed just after Maggie had discovered she was alive. Not to mention seeing her father decapitated last season by The Governor (David Morrissey).
The Walking Dead writers have teased fans with sly references to his comic book demise this season. First, in the season premiere preview where it looked like Glenn was about to get a baseball bat to the head in Terminus, then having him pick up a bat to carry as a weapon.
Is Glenn really going to die or are they just playing with fans’ minds so they can blindside them with a totally unexpected death? Because it’s hard to imagine getting through the rest of the season of The Walking Dead and the likely introduction of Negan without someone dying. And killing off Glenn seems too obvious.
The show synopsis for the season finale has revealed Daryl (Norman Reedus) will be in trouble that episode while making a run, but would The Walking Dead kill him off? Or perhaps that’s when the Walking Dead writers will finally bring back Morgan (Lennie James) to rescue Daryl and save the day.
Who do you think will be the next major character to die on The Walking Dead , and do you think it will be at the hands of Negan?
[Photo by Gene Page/AMC]