Negan’s brutal executions of both Abraham and Glenn in The Walking Dead‘s infamous season 7 opener marked the most devastating moments in the series’ entire history, but one of the former Savior leader’s victims still doesn’t hold a grudge. Having said that, he’d definitely like to see Negan “put through the wringer.”
Michael Cudlitz might have had his character Abraham Ford killed off all those years ago, but he’s still working as a director on the show. He helmed one episode of season 9 and two in season 10 – episode 4 “Silence the Whisperers” and episode 7 “Open Your Eyes.” Cudlitz chatted with Negan himself, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and his wife Hilarie Burton Morgan on their show Friday Night In With The Morgans and was asked whether he’d like to give Negan a tough time in another directorial effort as revenge. The actor/director revealed that the answer is both yes and no.
“No. No. I want to put him through the wringer because it would be fun to watch, but not for revenge,” Cudlitz said with a laugh. “That’s the thing, is that people ask this question a lot when we do panels and stuff at conventions and they ask, ‘What was the hardest scene you’ve ever done?’ We loved that. When you guys think, ‘that was so hard,’ we love being emotionally available and going through things that we haven’t gone through before, or things that we have gone through before in a different way with amazing scene partners.”
Cudlitz went on to add that really tough, traumatic scenes are a joy for an actor, describing them as “our dessert.” He added: “Getting put through the wringer, as you guys would think, that’s like a day at Disneyland for us.”
The man who played Abe might’ve put Negan’s misdeeds behind him, but many of the survivors still on the show haven’t. As things stand, Negan has proven his loyalty to the good guys by killing Alpha on Carol’s orders, when he had a cushy leadership position going amongst the Whisperers. But don’t expect folks like Daryl to start becoming best buddies with him.
The Walking Dead season 10 is currently on hiatus, with Morgan himself previously admitting that he has no idea when the finale will air or when production on season 11 will begin. We’ll keep you posted when any updates come in, though.