Robert Kirkman Talks Glenn Controversy, Negan, & More

Variety recently sat down with Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman to answer all the questions fans asked themselves after the Mid-Season Finale. Here’s an excerpt from the article…catch the ENTIRE interview over at Variety.

Variety: Denise has been taken hostage by the Wolf that Morgan captured. How much do we have to worry about her?

RK: A lot. This is the “Walking Dead.” You should be worried about pretty much every character at this point. This season premiere is going to be a big episode in a long line of big episodes. Denise is definitely in peril. I can’t really say much about it, but the odds aren’t looking so great for her.

Variety: Would Carol have killed Morgan?

RK: Absolutely. She had no problem killing Lizzie. She would have killed Morgan in that moment. I think that’s why she was so angry and I think that’s why she was so scared. She didn’t want to. But she knew that she had to and she knew that she would.

Variety: The post-credits sequence revealed that we’re going to finally meet Negan. Who is Negan? How will he be different onscreen from what fans know from the comics?

RK: There are obviously certainly limitations to the broadcast on AMC, but we’re working around that stuff right now to figure out some cool ways to keep Negan’s vocabulary fairly intact, so I think fans are going to be pretty excited about that. Negan is the leader of the Saviors. He’s the new biggest threat, possibly the biggest ever threat that’s ever been introduced in the “Walking Dead.” We’ve announced that Jeffrey Dean Morgan is playing him, and he’s an absolutely amazing actor. He checks every box needed for Negan, which is he’s very personable. You like this guy. He’s very funny. But he’s also extremely intimidating. Very powerful. Just a very wide range of personality traits that Negan encompasses. It was very difficult to find somebody who did check all those boxes. But I’m very happy to do say Mr. Morgan does. Negan himself is a catalyst who fundamentally changes what we’re doing with “The Walking Dead” and how these characters exist and really messes a lot of things up for Rick in a lot of terrifying ways. There’s a lot of cool stuff in store for the “Walking Dead” fans when he debuts.

Variety: Any regrets on how the Glenn storyline played out?

RK: No, absolutely not. Having killed as many characters as we’ve killed, we’re in our sixth season, character deaths are a very big part of the show. The danger the characters are in is an ever-present force that really drives the show. You have to change things up. You have to do different things. As a show that delves into emotion the way that it does, our audience is very emotional about all of these characters. What we did with Glenn, making it appear that he was dead and carrying it over many episodes, I think it brought the audience into the show in a really interesting way. I think that viewers that saw Glenn die had the same uncertainty that Maggie had throughout those episodes. And to a certain extent still has. And you feel her pain in a way that’s a little more palpable than you would otherwise. As a storytelling experience, as something that brings that audience into the show more than we usually do, I think it worked really well. I’m really happy with how it turned out. People on the internet get frustrated about things. That’s to a certain extent always a good sign. That shows just how people are invested in the show. It’s great that people are still into it.

Get MORE of your Mid-Season Finale questions answered over at Variety!