WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 10, Episode 22, "Here's Negan," which aired Sunday on AMC.
The Walking Dead Season 10C has officially come to a close with "Here's Negan," which -- much like the Walking Dead spinoff comic of the same name -- delves into past of the titular Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), former leader of the Saviors. Unlike in the comic, however, Dwight (Austin Amelio) does not factor into Negan's origin story -- and showrunner Angela Kang has a good reason as to why.
In the comic, it was Dwight who first encountered Negan in the woods and asked him to join his group, which would soon become the Saviors. The television series, on the other hand, actually establishes Laura (Lindsley Register) as the first Savior, and Dwight is nowhere to be seen. The reason for this change is a combination of things. First off, Amelio's Dwight left The Walking Dead a couple years ago to join its spinoff series, Fear the Walking Dead. This may not have been a problem in and of itself, but with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic greatly affecting shooting schedules, TWD was not able to borrow Amelio from Fear for "Here's Negan."
"We wanted to bring back somebody that was a former Savior," Kang told Entertainment Weekly. "And this is no knock against our Laura, we love that actor and she's wonderful, and it worked out great. But our original desire was to get Dwight because obviously Dwight is who appears in the Here's Negan comic." She continued, "The scheduling did not work with Fear the Walking Dead because usually we're not on the exact same filming schedule. But because COVID pushed everything, it wouldn't have worked to bring him over."
Regarding the decision to bring Register's Laura into the mix, Kang said, "We were like, 'Okay, well let's think about our other Saviors and who is a sympathetic former Savior. And most of them are not really, but Laura was always a Savior that you go, like, 'She doesn't seem that bad.' And then she joined our heroes until Beta killed her... It was partly a matter of circumstance. But at the end of the day, I actually really like that it wound up being Laura, because it helps me understand how she came to cross with Negan and be friends with him. And yet it was so easy to turn her back to our hero side."
Based on the Image Comics series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, The Walking Dead premiered on AMC back in 2010. Season 10 premiered on Oct. 6, 2019 and initially concluded on Oct. 4, 2020 after its finale was delayed several months due to COVID-19. Season 10 then returned for six bonus episodes, which aired from Feb. 28 to April 4. The Walking Dead will return for its 11th and final season on Sunday, Aug. 22.
The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews. Season 11 premieres Aug. 22 on AMC.
Source: Entertainment Weekly