The stars of the newest 'Walking Dead' spinoff talk to ET about Negan and Maggie's latest mission.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan team up for an unlikely duo in the latest Walking Dead spinoff.
The Walking Dead: Dead City follows Maggie (Cohan) and Negan (Morgan) traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland as they search for Maggie's missing teenage son, Hershel (Logan Kim). The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty and terror.
Morgan and Cohan recall going straight into prep on Dead City while wrapping The Walking Dead's final season, which officially ended its 11-season run in November.
"We had maybe three-and-a-half weeks off, but we pretty much went straight into it. And I think it helps in a lot of ways, to be honest," Cohan shared with ET's Will Marfuggi.
"We were in pre-production on this before we wrapped Walking Dead," Morgan confirmed. "So it was 'bang, bang bang.' They wanted to start sooner, and Lauren and I were both like, we need a minute because we've been shooting in Georgia for over a year straight. And we did need a little bit of a minute. And I think they only bought a week."
When the action picks up on Maggie and Negan in Dead City, a lot of water has gone under the bridge between the two characters. Cohan described their dynamic as being "pretty tense" at the start of the series.
"The thing that's been really cool is they have to acknowledge that they need each other," the actress said. "There's been so much avoidance in their relationship up to this point and an inability for Maggie to face him fully. And now we get to say, 'I know, it's hard to face you.' But is there some good on the other side of it? Is there something on the other side that we have that she hasn't been able to solve? I just like how tangible it is. We have this certain exchange that we get to face in the series."
"It was so much different when I think you're having to service 20 main actors in a show," Morgan noted. "And then suddenly you have two characters in Maggie and Negan that had been dancing around each other for years. And came to sort of a truce. I think people were more worried that we'd be getting along real well. But to then become the focus and not serving a massive cast and be able to find the nuances in this relationship, the complications for each of them individually and together, I think there's been a thrill. We had a great time as actors certainly trying to dive into that a little bit."
Both acknowledged that while on paper, Maggie and Negan may seem like polar opposites, they're actually more similar than one would think.
"Shockingly that’s exactly the point. I wonder if either of them would admit that, saying that there's a lot of similarities," Morgan agreed. "I'm sure that Maggie wouldn't. [She] would be mortified to even think that thought, I believe."
"What is so juicy about a series where you concentrate on these two people, it's just not black and white," Cohan said. "You meet Negan, but you're also introduced to his reputation through the character of [Perlie] Armstrong and his 'Wanted' poster. Ironically, they're both struggling on the fringes of society. I do need him and there's some kind of warped beauty in great necessity they have with each other. And that to me, I was like, 'Oh god, that feels so unexpected, but pretty cool.'"
But can a character like Negan actually have redemption? That's one of the lingering questions Dead City presents.
"Yes and no," Morgan answered honestly. "I think Negan will always be needed and I say that all the time. I think that Negan at one point, I was always in there, regardless of what we've seen in the last couple of years with Negan trying to redeem himself. When it comes down to it, and it comes down to survival, Negan knows how to survive. I don't think he'll ever have redemption in Maggie's eyes for sure. And that's understandable."
Considering Negan killed Maggie's husband, Glenn, on The Walking Dead, it's understandable why she has a hard time moving past it.
"What really registered for me and going back into the story in this way is, what is the resistance about?" Cohan said of Maggie's hesitancy to forgive. "Because you can also intellectually understand that somebody's making huge efforts. Ultimately, the tension in this is even though we've been separated from each other, if Maggie could, what would that give Negan and what would that give to Maggie as well? I love being on the precipice of what they reflected each other and does that equal forgiveness? What people see at the end of The Walking Dead results in this truce and then we come here and we say, 'Hold on a minute.' Have we just leapfrogged over the place you have to look at and say, 'What's going on here? What would really fix this?' In Dead City, we get to do that and we get to go and look at each other deeply in a way that is so uncomfortable and hopefully get more healing on the other side of that."
Morgan elaborated further on why he believes a Negan-Maggie reconciliation will almost never happen.
"All this tension is right there and Maggie's pissed and Negan is sick of dealing with it. It's this relationship that she has with her son. She's dealing with a teenage son and it's a rocky deal as it is with any teenage son and so I think that is also in the way of any sort of being able to forgive is that she's dealing with it daily in this relationship that she's having with Hershel and where that stands. It's a tricky spot to be in for both of them. Negan's just f**ked up and has regressed in some ways because horrible things have happened to his family. He's alone, trying to take care of this girl and Maggie's lost her son who has been rebelling against her and she's trying to be a good mom. Yet she looks at him and she's like, 'He needs his dad. Where's his dad?' Well, we know where his dad is. And so, how can she forgive Negan? It's always going to be fresh for her at this point."
The Walking Dead: Dead City premieres Sunday, June 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC, as well as BBC America, IFC and Sundance. The first episode is available to stream now on AMC+.
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