After The Walking Dead ended, Negan’s story continues in the spin-off The Walking Dead: Dead City. But one thing the trailers and early episodes seemed to ignore was that Negan was supposed to be a husband and father. Was the ex-Savior’s family just forgotten or killed off-screen? In episode 3 there is now the answer, which is sure to be disappointing for Negan fans.
Warning, spoilers follow to The Walking Dead: Dead City
The Walking Dead explains why Negan’s family is missing from Dead City spin-off
In the third episode of the spin-off, set several years after the end of the main series, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has a brief chat with Maggie (Lauren Cohan) about why he’s currently traveling without Annie (Beth Keener). A happy ending was not granted to Negan and his pregnant wife after The Walking Dead finale, as summarized by Screen Rant, among others.
AMC
In case you don’t remember, that was Annie
The good news first: the baby was born healthy. Yes, Negan officially has a son named Joshua. Whether the child will ever really get to know his father is questionable. Because behind the absence of Annie and Joshua is a tragic story.
“some yearsOne day after The Walking Dead ended, Annie was brutally attacked and beaten up by five men. Worse things might have happened to her, but at this point in the story he has to swallow and doesn’t have the heart to elaborate. Annie survived. Negan however, wanted revenge and killed all five men.
Sounds like his understandable reaction, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, Negan’s family lived on the outskirts of New Babylon, a network of many small settlements with very strict laws. That explains why Negan is a wanted man in Dead City anywhere near New York.
On the run from the law, Negan put his family on a train bound for Missouri. Because he sees himself as a danger to his loved ones, he simply left them behind. Annie and Joshua were thus shipped to the west of the USA – far away from the plot of all The Walking Dead series.
The Walking Dead destroys Negan’s most important development from the finale
The tragic explanation is meant to make us feel more empathy for Negan. But it leaves a bitter aftertaste. In the final episodes of Season 11, Negan became a husband and father-to-be from scratch. The new character Annie gave his character a reason to fight and gave his story a greater drop. Now Negan had someone to lose – understanding how Maggie once felt when her husband Glenn was killed by the Savior leader.
In retrospect, that storyline made absolutely no sense. Negan’s family doesn’t play a role in the new series. Saying goodbye to the character of Annie off-screen with an absolutely traumatic story is just plain cruel, especially to her actress, Beth Keener. Negan’s character doesn’t make that decision any better either.
You can watch the trailer for The Walking Dead: Dead City here
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Rather than properly tie his family into the storyline and continue his character development, we see a step backwards in Dead City. Negan is simply given a new child, the girl Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), who hasn’t spoken since the death of his family, and he helps Maggie rescue her kidnapped son.
And so The Walking Dead repeats itself again. Carl and later Judith explained Negan’s empathetic side sufficiently. The spin-off doesn’t have anything really new to tell about the character. Instead, Negan seems intent on caring for every child in need that isn’t his own.
After 11 seasons of The Walking Dead, the zombie franchise has a chance to tell something completely new instead of just continuing the finished series. This succeeds with the exciting New York setting. Unfortunately, less so with the characters Maggie and Negan. Here Dead City clings too much to the past.
When does The Walking Dead: Dead City start in Germany?
In the USA, the 6-part first season of The Walking Dead: Dead City has been running on AMC since June 18, 2023. Unfortunately, when and how the series will come to Germany is still not certain.
The previous The Walking Dead series have been published on Sky, Amazon, Disney+ and Magenta TV. As soon as there is news about the German launch of The Walking Dead: Dead City, we will inform you about it.
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