With the Governor finally out of the picture, AMC's The Walking Dead is left without a main human antagonist. But that might not be the case for too long.

In the Walking Dead comics, a new villain eventually emerges after the fall of the Governor: Negan, the proud owner of Lucille, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. In other words, he's a psychopath worthy of filling the Governor's shoes.

Negan doesn't debut in the comics until more than 50 issues after the Governor's death, but the Walking Dead television series has been known to take departures from the source material. Is it possible the writers of the hit drama will speed up the timetable and introduce Negan earlier than in the comics? Creator Robert Kirkman says, sure, it's possible — but it won't happen this season.

"The plan is that we will see him eventually," he told Entertainment Weekly. "But I definitely do think there needs to be some kind of space from a Governor into a Negan. You have to have something of a break in there. So I wouldn't expect him to be showing up — definitely not in Season 4. I don't know. I wouldn't expect it too soon."

But Kirkman admitted that Negan could appear on the show at an earlier point than in the comic.

"Whether or not we have the same amount of breathing room, or if we do cut that down a little bit and bring him into the show a little early remains to be seen," he said. "But we are all very excited about the prospect of bringing that guy into the show."

The Walking Dead returns Feb. 9 on AMC.