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Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a 59-year-old actor who portrayed the role of Negan, the leader of the Saviors, in the cult classic show, The Walking Dead (2010 - 2022).
Jeffrey Dean Morgan joined The Walking Dead in season 6 as a guest star and became a regular the next season. In 2022, a spinoff called The Isle of the Dead was announced, starring Morgan and Lauren Cohan. It was later renamed The Walking Dead: Dead City and aired its first season in 2023. Although fans are excited for season 2, Morgan originally had no plans to return after the main show ended.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly on September 21, 2022, when the spinoff was first announced, Jeffrey Dean Morgan said that he had surprised himself by agreeing to star in the new series. He said that even a year ago, he wouldn't have said yes to the new show because he planned to walk away once the main show ended. As he claimed in the same interview:
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"The new adventure awaits doing something else."
When asked why he changed his decision, he answered:
"I think that The Walking Dead ending and walking away from it would've been a noble thing for us all to do. But the story was so good and so worth telling that it simply came down to, I couldn't say no. And I felt invigorated and wanted to continue it."
Season 1 of The Walking Dead: Dead City, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, contained 6 episodes and was released in 2023. The second season, containing eight episodes, will premiere on May 4, 2025, with a new episode being released every week until June 22.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan on how being on set was different this time around
Filming for the first season of the spinoff began in July 2022, when the original show had just ended. Considering that filming began right on the heels of The Walking Dead, Jeffrey Dean Morgan spoke about how being on set for the spinoff was familiar yet felt very different.
He said in the same 2022 interview:
"Lauren and I are deep into this now. And we look around, and we're looking for our castmates. We're looking for their chairs. We're looking for the people we know, because as familiar as it all is, it is also very different."
He also spoke about how the workload had significantly increased, since the main show had boasted a much bigger cast, which required him to work only three days a week per episode, whereas for the new show, it was just him and Lauren Cohan on set 24/7. He also got slightly sentimental, claiming that even though things felt familiar, the absence of their old castmates was very noticeable.
He further elaborated his reasons for changing his initial decision not to continue in the franchise by saying:
"So it's been fun and it's very familiar, and yet it's different and it's new. What's really great is that Lauren and I are together, and that [showrunner Eli Jorné] wrote these stories that I think are f---ing outstanding. Trust me, I would not have continued this role otherwise."
Watch the new season of The Walking Dead: Dead City from May 4, 2025, on AMC and AMC+.
