Negan May Be Absent From The First Half Of The Walking Dead Season 8

Time flies, doesn’t it?

It feels like just yesterday we were waving goodbye to Rick and co. as they prepared for their all-out war with Negan. That was back in April, and while the wait for season 8 of The Walking Dead seemed excruciatingly long at the time, we’re now only a few months away from the show’s return, with AMC’s smash hit expected to be back on our television screens in October. While that’s all well and good, it’s starting to sound like we may be short a few characters at the start of the new season.

We’ve already heard that both Rosita and Michonne may not be around when the next batch of episodes kick off and now, reports are surfacing that say Negan may also be absent for a bit. Yes, he’s still the primary antagonist on the show, but Digital Spy claims that The Walking Dead is currently shooting the fifth episode of season 8 and Jeffrey Dean Morgan still hasn’t been seen on set, which could potentially mean that the villain isn’t very involved in the first half of the season.

This hasn’t been confirmed by AMC just yet, mind you, but given that the actor’s currently working on Rampage, it’d make sense if he’s too tied up to film his scenes for The Walking Dead. Then again, given how important Negan is to the show, it’d be surprising to have him absent for that many episodes. I mean, it’s possible, but even if his role is reduced at the beginning, we imagine he’ll still be seen at the start of season 8 in some capacity.

Of course, that’s all without even taking into account that The Walking Dead looks to be following the “All-Out War” arc from the comics, which Negan is very involved in. As Digital Spy points out, it’s possible that the actor has just been shooting most of his scenes indoors on a closed-off set, which would be why no one’s seen him on location yet.

Frankly, that seems like the most plausible explanation to us, but we won’t know for sure until The Walking Dead returns to AMC this October. Unless, of course, the first trailer gives us some hints when it debuts next month at Comic-Con.