During an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show on Tuesday, The Walking Dead’s Negan actor, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, revealed that he was a bit surprised that AMC would announce his new spin-off show while his character’s fate was still unknown on the main series.
“I guess we know that Negan doesn’t die. Spoiler alert, folks!” Morgan joked during the interview. “Sorry. I’m still not sure why we announced that already. It was sort of a shocker to me.”
The new TWD spin-off, entitled Isle of the Dead, will feature Morgan with current co-star Lauren Cohan as Maggie. The two are said to be roaming the streets of New York City, fighting zombies and probably each other.
But when this spin-off was announced, most fans had two questions: Does this mean we’ll see Negan again in the main series (because, at the time, he left), and how in the hell did they get to New York City?
Well, to answer the first question, you might want to check out my recent review and recap of Season 11 Episode 13. I don’t want to add in spoilers here, but that article has a bunch.
As for the second question, Morgan’s words suggest to me that we’ll see how they get to NYC later in TWD Season 11. He makes it sound like we weren’t supposed to know that yet, which we’re not, but now we kinda do. Whoops.
Isle of the Dead will be the fifth TWD spin-off announced in a long line that includes Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead World Beyond, Tales of the Walking Dead, the Daryl and Carol spin-off, and now this.
“We’re gonna shoot in Manhattan so I get to be home,” Morgan said, adding, “I think seeing zombies in Manhattan is gonna be kind of super fantastic. We’ve got a studio in the Jersey side and then we’ll shoot in the city.”
Morgan currently owns a 100-acre ranch in upstate New York, so he’ll definitely be closer to home than the current filming locations in Georgia.
This last season has been unique as it features 24 episodes instead of the usual 16. When you take the additional six episodes from the end of Season 10 into consideration, the crew has been filming for around 18 months straight. That’s about triple what it normally takes for a season.
“At this point, everybody’s just ready to be done, ready to go home,” he said.
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