7 Questions We Have After The Walking Dead’s Midseason Premiere

2) Will Negan Take A Back Seat For The Rest Of The Season?

The presentation of Negan was a double-edged sword in the first half of this season. On the one hand, he was a winningly larger-than-life character who was gleefully played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And gleeful isn’t an adjective often associated with The Walking Dead, so that came as a breath of fresh air.

On the other, though, his constant gloating and lording it over our heroes got old after a while. With just about everyone underneath his boot, the series was in danger of becoming The Negan Show. This wasn’t helped by the fact that he appeared in more episodes than most of the other characters.

In this outing, then, it was a surprise that the leader of the Saviors was relegated to a single – though admittedly hilarious – radio message, with his right-hand man Simon taking on the responsibility of intimidating Alexandria into giving up Daryl. With his favourite prisoner escaped, and with one of his own men killed, you would think that Negan would want to deal with it himself, so it’s a bit of surprise that he doesn’t make an appearance here.

Have the showmakers taken on board people’s criticisms then? Do they plan on limiting Negan’s involvement for the rest of the season? That remains to be seen, but it could be a good idea. With Negan confirmed to stay on until season 8, the character could quickly suffer from overexposure if he remains such a prominent presence on the show.