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After a horrific cliffhanger left viewers eager to discover who he had killed with Lucille, his favorite barbed-wired bat, Negan confirmed his status as the best villain in season 7, episode 1. Each member of Rick's crew was lined up side by side while Negan decided using a "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe" game who would pay for their disobedience after the Saviors ambushed under Negan's orders. It turned out to be Abraham, whose head Lucille knocked around.
Reflecting his tough character, Abraham accepted his death without staging a spectacle and mumbled his last words with his head up. Along with Rosita and Eugene, who survived right until the very final season, Abraham debuted in season 4. Though his main objective was to get Eugene to Washington D.C. so he could work on a cure, Abraham was the head of the trio and a major player in the struggle against the Saviors. Abraham died before he could see the towns flourish, but his noble heart drove him to continue with Rick's crew and employ his combat talents to defend innocent people.
Rick's crew was caught in the act and knew Negan wouldn't allow them flee without damage, hence Abraham's killing could not have been prevented. But Glenn's death came from the group's suppressed anger and horror brought on by Abraham's violent killing, which drove Daryl to stand up and strike Negan in the face, so rendering the evil another life as a "lesson." One of the longest-surviving members of Rick's crew by then, Glenn was also a fan favorite. Recreating the character's demise in the comics in a cruel but unexpected manner, Glenn suffered a long, graphic death likewise brought on by Lucille.
If Glenn hadn't been there, Rick most likely would have perished in season 1 and never saw the good in people. Glenn was the most gentle member of the crew. Though Glenn never lived to meet his child, Hershel Rhee, he fell in love with Maggie in season 2 and the two were married as well as having a baby together. Negan knows Maggie won never forgive him because he killed Glenn in cold blood, yet he feels the need to guard her and Hershel on his road of atonement.
Though their deaths the most horrific for fans, Glenn and Abraham may have been the most well-liked characters killed by Negan on The Walking Dead. Jeffrey Dean Morgan's role was only getting started. Another Negan kill that honored the books by reproducing the violence of the moment side by side was Spencer's death in The Walking Dead many episodes later.
One of the most powerful people in Alexandria, Spencer was a lookout who progressively turned into a low-key menace to Rick and his allies. Spencer criticized Rick for not taking the death of his family members well and suggested an impending betrayal. Negan visited Alexandria, where Spencer sought to get him to kill Rick. This infuriated Negan and caused him to savagely disembowel Spencer with his knife, declaring "he's got no guts."
Though they're not the most agonizing means of execution he used, Negan's most visceral kills on The Walking Dead are probably those he caused using Lucille. Dr. Emmett Carson might have suffered the most of all the people Negan killed when Negan burned him alive. Following Negan's execution of important members, Rick's gang disintegrated, and Negan himself grew more dubious and erratic, killing members of his own group.
Emmett, a brilliant and gregarious doctor who grew devoted to Negan and Dwight, was among the most influential members of the Saviors. Knowing the doctor wouldn't be a threat, Negan insisted to know who let Sherry escape and Dwight implicated Dr. Emmett. Dr. Emmett even admitted to a crime he did not do, which infuriated Negan to burn him alive in the furnace while Dwight watched regretfully.
For most seasons 6 and 7, Simon was Negan's right-hand man; but, allowed his pride get over him and he covertly enlisted Saviors to assume group leadership. Though he was sadist, Negan was clever: he exploited the Saviors' might to subjugate the other settlements, leash their leaders, and pilfers their products. Simon thought wiping out Hilltop and Alexandria would be far more efficient since he considered this approach as evidence of Negan's weakening state.
Simon started planning a coup against Negan, most likely going to be successful had he not trusted Dwight, the informant for Rick. Negan executed all of Simon's soldiers after Dwight informed him of the plot, therefore guaranteeing his allegiance. Simon got battered and severely choked after Negan challenged him to battle for the Savior's leadership. Once more, Negan made the Saviors terrified of their leader, therefore momentarily bringing peace within the group.
In season 10, Brandon distinguished himself as among The Walking Dead's most pitiful characters. Turning his back on Rick and Alexandria and remembering Negan's moments as a Savior, he was a totally crazy youngster who worshipped Negan as if he were a god. Brandon saw Negan as the ideal father and leader; the loss of his parents obviously shattered him psychologically. Brandon killed Amelia and her son Milo in cold blood—something that infuriated Negan rather than made him proud—in an effort to please him.
Negan thereby turned Brandon's head into a pulp using a rock. Among the people Negan killed, Brandon was one that displayed hints of his approaching atonement arc. Negan had killed before with vicious and self-serving motivations. Though seeing Brandon do so to impress him forced Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character to start contemplating his actions and impact on others, Brandon was killed by Negan because he had slain an innocent lady and kid — something Negan would have no doubt be capable of himself.
After Rick vanquished Negan and started his atonement trip, Alpha assumed the major villain role. Leading the Whisperers, a hazardous group disguising themselves with the skin and walkers' intestines to mix in among millions, she was Alpha led her group into a violent territorial conflict against the survivors' communities and planned one of the most horrific events of the show: to mark the Whisperers' border, Alpha kidnapped and killed several members of the communities, including Enid, and Tara, zombified head placed on wooden spikes.
Carol let Negan flee Alexandria, then he entered the Whisperers and won Alpha's trust by starting a sexual relationship with her. Though she was psychopath and a cold-blooded killer, Alpha had one flaw: her daughter Lydia. Once Carol let Negan flee Alexandria, he entered the Whisperers and won Alpha's trust by starting a sexual relationship with her. It was an interesting arc because neither Carol nor the viewers could know how genuine Negan's feelings were towards Alpha, but he succeeds in proving his loyalty to the communities: after leading Alpha to her daughter's supposed location, Negan slit Alpha's throat and cut her head off.
While Beta was technically finished off by Walkers, it was Negan's actions that led the The Walking Dead antagonist that allowed this to happen, so the proxy-killing still counts towards Negan's total on the show. Following Alpha's death, Beta became leadership for the Whisperers; although Negan wasn't the one delivering the fatal blow, he was the main component in the scheme to permanently destroy the Whisperers.
Knowing Beta's passion for retribution, Negan set the Whisperers' commander into a trap and effectively brought him to Daryl, who crept up on him and stabbed him across both eyes. Negan and Daryl let the walkers devour Beta, symbolizing the end of Beta's devotion to the wicked Whisperers' way of life. Though Negan might not have exacted the last blow to Beta personally, the head of the Whisperer most likely passed away one of the most agonizing deaths Negan has yet witnessed.
Despite having a reputation as a cause of multiple Character Deaths on The Walking Dead, Negan is surprisingly only responsible for 8 significant ones in throughout the show (although there were some of the most violent and bloody from all 11 seasons). However, it's in these character deaths that Negan's journey can be best illustrated, since he's come a long way since his introduction in The Walking Dead to being one of the two protagonists of spinoff The Walking Dead: Dead City.
The characters Negan killed since his first appearance in season 6 reflect on how much the character has changed until the ending of The Walking Dead. His journey as a major antagonist begins when he kills two fan-favorite characters, Abraham and Glenn, and seems to end when he murders two of the show's biggest antagonists, Alpha and Beta, showing that while he's still searching for his redemption, there's no doubt that he's leaning on the good side now.
Negan wasn't just a memorable and fan-favorite villain in The Walking Dead, but he was also one of its most brutal. He killed indiscriminately and sadistically, often when he didn't need to and without a clear motive beyond intimidation. It's much likelier that leaders like Rick Grimes would have executed Negan at the earliest opportunity, even if he helped out other communities by, for example, killing Alpha.
The reason he became a fan-favorite character was due to Jeffrey Dean Morgan's performance, but whether Negan in-universe would ever be redeemed in the eyes of others is especially questionable. The way he killed characters like Glenn, for example, was absolutely horrific. In a dangerous post-apocalyptic hellscape like the world The Walking Dead takes place in, it's much likelier that leaders like Rick Grimes would have executed Negan at the earliest opportunity, even if he helped out other communities by, for example, killing Alpha.
The redemption arc was also arguably conceived due to the popularity of the character, since keeping Negan as an antagonist would have put a limit on how long he could remain on the show (and in the comics, even though his story on-page is very different like most TWD characters). Ultimately, it's up to viewers whether Negan earned his redemption arc, but there's definitely an argument to be made that his past actions make it more-or-less impossible to see him as a hero in The Walking Dead.
Based on one of the most successful and popular comic books of all time, AMC’s The Walking Dead captures the ongoing human drama following a zombie apocalypse. The series, developed for television by Frank Darabont, follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it is the living who remain that truly become the walking dead. The Walking Dead lasted for eleven seasons and spawned several spinoff shows, such as Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.