The long-awaited origin of The Walking Dead's bad guy-turned-ally Negan is coming up on the AMC series' now-extended 10th season, and will feature none other than Lucille -- Negan's former wife, that is, not just the barbaric weapon he named after her. The show has cast Hilarie Burton, Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan's real-life wife, in the role, and showrunner Angela Kang says while COVID safety protocols played a part in her casting, there were other reasons Burton was selected.

"So, I'll say that the COVID situation and the fact that they are in a pod together, these characters have to do intimate scenes," Kang told Entertainment Weekly. "It definitely helps just for comfort level, but the conversation about her possibly playing Lucille far predated the start of the pandemic."

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"It was always something that [The Walking Dead chief content officer] Scott Gimple and I had kind of batted around," Kang said. "So, we just feel like she's perfect for it. And the two of them really work together well and just have a really cool dynamic, so it worked out really well."

"But definitely that is this weird COVID-specific side benefit that came with it, which is just like, as we were going to great lengths to make sure just that as we started filming, that all of our actors feel very, very comfortable with the plan for how we do scenes."

Like many other television series, The Walking Dead was forced into a COVID-induced hiatus with the onset of the global pandemic early last year, interrupting the completion of the show's 10th season. The original season finale aired in October six months after the previous episode, but the show makers subsequently decided to film six additional episodes, allowing viewers to avoid a drought in advance of the show's 11th and final season. Rigid safety and distancing protocols were put into place for the cast and crew when production resumed -- protocols that can be loosened since the fictional couple are also together in real life.

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"It opened up things a little bit, I think, for the two of them," Kang said. "And it opened up the types of shots that we could do and really feeling that true closeness between them, because of the pod. But that's what we would have hoped for anyway."

"So I guess it gave us the ability to tell something that felt like a very, very intimate, wonderful story with them."

The episode "Here's Negan," is slated to air as the finale to the show's extended 10th season on April 4. The story is based on the Here's Negan! spinoff comic by The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. The comic chronicled the transition of Negan from a high school gym teacher to the brutal leader of the post-apocalyptic survivors' group known as The Saviors.

The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews. Season 10 returns Sunday, Feb. 28 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on AMC. The first bonus episode is already available for AMC+ subscribers.

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Source: Entertainment Weekly