While the season six finale of ‘The Walking Dead’ has been met with much controversy, very little of that had to do with how faithful Negan’s introduction was to the source material created by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. Due to the character’s foul mouth in the comics, we could all pretty much assume that his language would be cleaned up when Jeffrey Dean Morgan brought the charismatic, yet brutish leader of the Saviors to life on the popular AMC zombie drama. However, if you decide to pick up the home release of the season, you’ll get Negan in all of his profanity-laced glory.
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer and season six finale director Greg Nicotero revealed that the Blu-Ray and DVD releases of the show’s latest chapter will feature Negan’s full speech from issue 100, complete with all the expletives. This is sure to be good news to the comic purists out there, even though the version that aired was still pretty damn good. Check out what the special effects guru had to say about it:
”We had to shoot two versions. [W]e had to shoot the Blu-ray version, which had a lot of the swearing and a lot of Negan’s colorful language, and then we had to shoot the broadcast version. So when you get the DVD or the Blu-ray version, that will have the full Negan speech from the graphic novel.”
In addition to that news, Nicotero also addressed the contentious ending to the episode. Like his fellow EPs, he unsurprisingly defended their choice to end on a cliffhanger that left the audience wondering who died at the hands of Negan and Lucille. However, he invoked Luke Skywalker and The Trilogy to explain his reasoning behind it:
“I remember sitting in the theater watching ‘Empire Strikes Back’ and having Darth Vader say, ‘I am your father’ and I was shocked and amazed, and I don’t remember being angry. I don’t remember saying, ‘Oh, I give up on ‘Star Wars’ because that’s lame…’ Next season is really Negan’s story and how our group has to deal with who he is and what his way of life is, so I think it’s the perfect ending to this season: watching everyone on their knees, stripped down to the barest vulnerability, and knowing that the cavalry’s not coming over the hill. I was very passionate about ending this season on a cliffhanger and not knowing, because I feel like it propels us into next season in a great way. So people can be upset. A week from now, they won’t be upset anymore, and it’ll be fun.”
Though there definitely had to be some upset ‘Star Wars’ fans back in 1980, Nicotero certainly makes a very good argument. And now that the viewers have had a few days to let it sink in, we’ll see if they can change their minds. If not, there’s plenty of time between now and season seven for the dust to settle (only to have our hearts torn out once again when we finally learn the identity of Negan’s first victim).
Are you excited to hear Negan’s introduction on ‘The Walking Dead’ completely uncensored? Or do you think that hearing Jeffrey Dean Morgan deliver the lines as they were originally written in the comic on the Blu-Ray and DVD will detract from the broadcast version of the character? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments below.
Despite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences and puns far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Also, his fingers are crossed that Glenn doesn’t actually die when ‘The Walking Dead’ returns.
