Matthew Lillard Almost Played Negan on ‘The Walking Dead’

Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s unhinged, charismatic performance as Negan on The Walking Dead remains one of television’s most iconic villain portrayals, but did you know the role almost went to a very different actor?

Matthew Lillard was initially cast, unbeknownst to him, as The Walking Dead’s most iconic villain—who would have been a much different animal under Lillard’s on-screen stewardship.

During a recent appearance on The Big Thing Podcast, the Scream star revealed he auditioned and even received multiple callbacks for the part of Negan before Morgan ultimately landed the role.

A few years after losing the part, Lillard discovered just how close he came to joining The Walking Dead cast. In fact, the part very—very—briefly was Lillard’s… He just didn’t know it at the time.

“The creator of the show comes over, and he said, ‘You have no idea. You had the part for like 10 minutes.’ At that point, I would’ve had another 10 years of work,” Lillard revealed.

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It was all for the best, of course, as Morgan completely made the brutal, maniacal role his own, somehow maintaining a uniquely compelling charm even during his most heinous, violent scenes. (RIP forever, Glenn.)

Meanwhile, Lillard would have played Negan quite differently. “He’s [Morgan] super masculine, and I just would’ve been more wicked and funny. He was super badass and masculine. We would have had very different takes,” he explained.

While we would have loved to have seen Lillard on The Walking Dead—we love to see him in anything, really—the Scooby-Doo icon has enjoyed an on-screen resurgence in recent years, appearing in Scream 7, The Life of Chuck, and the Five Nights at Freddy’s film franchise.

Lillard also plays Mr. Charles in Episode 8 of the Disney+ streaming series Daredevil: Born Again.