Before Jeffrey Dean Morgan accepted the offer, Matthew Lillard was in line to play Negan in The Walking Dead.
After a decade of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan in The Walking Dead, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. The actor played the villain for almost 100 episodes, enduring one of the biggest character arcs in the entire franchise. And his tenure still isn’t over; he’ll return in The Walking Dead: Dead City season 3 alongside Lauren Cohan’s Maggie. In an alternate universe, Matthew Lillard — known for roles in big franchises like Scream and Scooby-Doo — played the iconic villain.
Lillard playing Negan was closer to coming into fruition than many fans think. In fact, during a recent interview with CBR, the actor revealed that he actually had the role nailed down “for five minutes,” until Jeffrey Dean Morgan ultimately accepted the offer.
“I’ve auditioned for things. I’ve talked about this a couple of times, but The Walking Dead. I auditioned for that four times. Four times,” Lillard recalled in the interview. “The showunner and I were doing Hall H down in San Diego [Comic-Con], and I was doing Twin Peaks, and Walking Dead was right behind us. And he was like, ‘I love your work. You were so close.'”
“He said, ‘You were actually Negan for five minutes because Jeffrey Dean Morgan had the offer. He wasn’t responding and the team clocked it, and they made the move to go to you.'”
He believes his version of Negan “would have been totally different,” and went on to heap praise on Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s portrayal. “He’s great – different and masculine – he’s fantastic.”
Lillard certainly has credit to his name in the world of villains, notably playing Stu Matcher in the Scream franchise. Nowadays, he’s playing baddie William Afton in the Five Nights at Freddy’s movies. He admits that the villain is “kind of similar” to Negan. “We don’t like him. Ehhh, zombies vs. murdering children. Given that, I don’t know if the analogy holds strong.”
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is out now in theatres. Have you seen it? Give us all your thoughts in the comments down below!
I honestly hate Negan so much I try to avoid anything with his actor. I prefer Afton to Negan.
JDM is Negan once he got to play him it’s hard to see someone else playing the part.
Totally agree — JDM is incredible in the role.
I honestly cannot see anybody else playing Negan except for Jeffrey. Matthew was a good actor, but he is more of a traumatic funny guy where Jeffrey Dean can play just about anything I believe that’s my guy even though I hated Negan when he killed Glenn. And Abraham and a lot a lot of other people I still fell in love with his character. The Walking Dead is still a big part of my life. I’ve been watching it since day one and I keep watching it over and over. Call me weird but it feels a hole in my life for some reason it’s like a soap popper With zombies lol PS I would love to be a zombie
Totally agree! Same here, I’ve been covering TWD for many years, had the opportunity to speak to cast and crew. It’s a big part of my life and very much a big reason why I’m in this line of work!
You sound like me. I love The Walking Dead and I watch it quite a bit!
I think Matthew Lillard would have also been great with his unique style
He would’ve brought something unique to the role, for sure!