Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

Who was The Walking Dead’s Negan before the apocalypse?

Christine Persaud
By

negan walking dead before apocalypse lucille
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Fans of The Walking Dead know the newly introduced character of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as the ominous villain who carts around a barbed wire-wrapped bat named Lucille, and isn’t afraid to use it. But what do we know about who Negan was before the zombies took over? A new preview sheds some light.

ComicBook.com reports a rather normal life for the man who has become the almost cult-like leader of the group known as the Saviors. According to the just-released first four pages of the Here’s Negan story from comic book publisher Image Comics, which created the comics on which The Walking Dead TV show is based, Negan was actually a schoolteacher, and a Ping-Pong coach. That latter occupation may reveal why he has such great skills at whacking a bat. (Surprisingly, he wasn’t an MLB star.) What did he teach? Perhaps economics?

Recommended Videos

In the story, a young Negan apparently still has the same potty mouth he carried with him to adulthood in The Walking Dead comics (the television persona is a bit more PG-13 in his speech, though just as frightening). His competitive nature shows while playing Ping-Pong, as he resorts to gloating and using “colorful language and sexual references.”

Related

Most interesting, however, is Negan’s desire to be known as the “cool” teacher, which might explain the vulgarity in attempts to “fit in.”

Particularly revealing is what may be the true motivation behind his awful ways: following a heated Ping-Pong match, his significant other approaches, and has a seizure right in front of him. It’s said that she “loses her footing,” which leads one to believe that he may have witnessed her death, or at least a terrible injury. Might she have been the real-life Lucille?

So it looks as though, like many others on the show, Negan was just a regular ol’ Joe. Interestingly, his previous occupation shows some parallels with the lead male character in spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead, Travis (Cliff Curtis), who was also a teacher before the infection spread. It just goes to show that anyone, no matter how soft and trusting, could become just as ruthless as Negan.

More information about Negan’s back story will be revealed as additional pages of the story are released at a rate of four each month. There will be 48 pages in all, so there’s clearly a lot to know about Negan as he progresses from one group of students, to a “kill now and ask questions later” group of followers in the apocalypse.

You can immerse yourself in the first four pages in the Image+ preview magazine.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Christine Persaud
Christine Persaud
Contributor
Christine has decades of experience in trade and consumer journalism. While she started her career writing exclusively about…
The Walking Dead series finale ending explained: We are the ones who live
Rick standing outside wearing a CRM jacket in The Walking Dead.

“We are the ones who live.” It’s a poignant final phrase for a show that has captivated fans for 11 seasons, 12 years, and 177 episodes. Now, The Walking Dead has officially come to an end.

Note: The following contains heavy plot spoilers for the series finale of The Walking Dead.

Read more
Tales of the Walking Dead is a refreshing take for the zombie franchise
Alpha/Dee and Lydia covered in blood in a scene from Tales of the Walking Dead.

As the original The Walking Dead series gears up for its 11th and final season commencing October 2, fans have been inundated with announcements of new and upcoming spinoffs to keep the franchise alive. The most recent is the six-episode anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead. What’s most surprising about this series, which aired its six-episode first season on AMC in mid-August through to late September, is that, unlike others such as Fear the Walking Dead and Walking Dead: World Beyond, you don’t need to watch the original to truly appreciate the show and understand what’s going on. These are standalone, compartmentalized stories with no continuity or crossovers with the original beyond the dystopian state of the world…and the team behind it.

Like the other Walking Dead series, the undead roam the streets, looking to satiate their voracious appetites for human flesh. But the characters and stories are completely unique not only from the main show, but from one another as well. Each episode has its own distinct look and feel, fitting into different genres that will make you laugh, cry, wince, and jump out of your seat. Since there are no connections, you can watch them in any order as well.
Multiple genres are explored
Tales of the Walking Dead Season 1 Comic-Con Trailer

Read more
Tales of the Walking Dead trailer shows new zombie adventures
Two women stand on an overpass and watch zombies walk towards them in a scene from Tales of The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead franchise is adding more zombie adventures to its universe with the addition of Tales of the Walking Dead, the new spinoff series set to premiere on AMC and AMC+. Scott M. Gimple, a co-creator of Tales, shared the first trailer from the spinoff in front of the lively crowd at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con. Also on hand for the announcement were showrunner/executive producer Channing Powell, director/executive producer Michael Satrazemis, and some cast members, including Terry Crews and Samantha Morton.

Tales of the Walking Dead will be a six-episode anthology series that features a standalone story in each episode. New and established characters in The Walking Dead universe will be featured throughout each episode. The tagline reads, "Six New Stories. One Dead World." The footage highlights all six stories in different settings as the characters all try to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Read more