The Walking Dead Season 9: 5 Major Questions After 'Adaptation'

When Jeffrey Dean Morgan joined The Walking Dead, viewers were divided on how much screen time the character was being given. Since he wasn't a protagonist, surely we didn't need to see him get up to no good at the Sanctuary when our heroes weren't there?

What's more, he was much more threatening when he was off-screen, as we could speculate about his masterplan rather than being fed it via his OTT expository dialogue. Regardless, the writers' choice to spend so much time with the Lucille-wielding baddie suggested that he was here to stay.

The decision to keep Negan around in a post-Rick Walking Dead is further proof of this, and Adaptation took the character on a new journey - both physically and metaphorically. After finding himself alone at his old Sanctuary, he came to the realisation that he'd rather be surrounded by the living - even if it resulted in him being thrown back in his Alexandrian cage.

While it'll be hard to forgive the character all of the horrors he bestowed upon the show's mainstays, a redemption arc might not be the worst thing the writers could do with Negan, and if this comes to pass - and it certainly looks like it will - it'll be something new, and the show can never have too much originality.