Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and since Robert Kirkman and Scott Gimple have been talking
about Season 5 and Negan I wanted to talk with you about actors.
I don’t know about you but I was really surprised they confirmed he would be a thing
this season.
They were pretty vague about when and how he’ll appear but we can pick apart the clues
in a sec.
Since this is kind of my first bonus video for Season 5 I also want you guys to let me
know what kind of bonus Walking Dead vids you’d like to see in the off season.
Just write your requests in the comments.
And be sure to subscribe to get everything.
I think until I start doing youtube videos full time I can only do about 1 a week average.
So let’s get started with all the Negan what not by asking a question?
What kind of an actor do we want?
Negan is without a doubt one of the worst most casually sadistic people we’ve ever
read about.
Is there an actor out there that can pull that off.
When I made my Top 10 list I tried to focus on actors that one, could outshine Andrew
Lincoln and Norman Reedus if they were all in a scene together, two someone that could
convey the comedy of the character.
As awful as Negan is, I always kind of felt like we were meant to laugh at his cruel jokes
and then feel really awful about it.
Like Kirkman wants you to treat Negan like a sadistic comedian.
So all these potential actors have to be imposing, funny and super evil.
Without looking like they’re doing an impression of The Joker.
Here’s the list Number 10 - Paying Homage To Robert Kirkman’s Comments, Jon Hamm.
So everyone asks Kirkman about Negan all the time, and in a recent Interview he threw out
Jon Hamm’s name as a solid choice for the character.
Just because there is something of a physical resemblance.
Negan has those really strong features, jet black hair and he’s super tall.
Just picture Don Draper really pissed off with a baseball bat.
That he’s nicknamed Lucille.
The other reason he picked Jon Hamm has a lot to do with the craziness inherent to the
Negan Character.
Any actor who plays the part will have to be as crazy as the Joker, but be able to hold
it in behind those crazy eyes you see in the comic book.
And Jon Hamm is a master of making you scared just by staring at you.
Number 9 - Henry Rollins
There was this old Walking Dead Comic Con 2012 panel where the artist on the comic book,
Charlie Adlard said Negan was based on Henry Rollins.
Both in his look and intensity.
I haven’t listened to Henry Rollins recently, but even if you don’t know his music, just
check him out on Sons of Anarchy.
Interesting side note, he also voiced a small part in Batman Brave and the Bold and Adventure
Time.
As really intense cartoon characters.
Number 8 - James Purefoy who’s actually on The Following
He’s done some comic book material before in Solomon Kane, but if he bulked up a little
bit and got more physical he could totally pull of Negan.
His villain on The Following is a little more insidious than Negan.
Everyone has their own opinion on how Negan expresses his evil.
I always thought of his alignment as being Lawful Evil.
Like he has his own code and rules that he follows and if you break them, instead of
kicking you out of the group.
He’ll just slaughter you.
There’s even a lot of father-son parallels that come up.
And I think Purefoy could totally be a really convincing evil father figure.
Like Lucius Malfoy before Voldemort took control.
Number 7 - Patrick Warburton
Most people now know him as the voice of Joe on Family Guy, but he’s essentially a comedic
actor that mostly plays large imposing characters.
He’d be perfect for the comedic aspects of Negan.
Like the endless f-bombs he drops.
He’s also really good at using his size to be scary.
I like the idea of Negan having Joe’s voice.
But here’s a quick question I want you to answer in the comments.
What kind of a voice do you think Negan has?
Does he have that deep Family Guy Joe voice?
Or is it softer or more high pitched?
I always read him as having a deep voice to match his big body.
Number 6 - Michael Madsen
He’s the perfect mix of crazy and funny too, so I had to put him on the list somewhere.
Seriously, even in real life he’s like Gary Busey, just a little bit crazy.
He’s a little older than I see the character being, and he’d have to get in better shape.
But the show does fudge the way people look sometimes if the actor is right for the part.
David Morrissey didn’t look anything like the comic book Governor.
But he was such a great actor it totally worked.
I have a feeling Michael Madsen is one of those actors that has to improvise everything,
so I think not being able to stick to the script might be a problem.
When you’re adapting a comic that’s already so good.
Changing a lot of the dialogue isn’t a good idea.
Especially if you’re doing scenes right off the page.
Number 5 - Nicolas Cage
Another crazy in real life actor that could pull it off on the show.
Cage is still relatively sought after for film roles, so his schedule might prevent
him from doing a series.
But if Negan isn’t featured too often it could work.
Supposedly the character will only have a minor appearance this season.
He’d also have to bulk up a little bit, but he’s close enough to the look that I
think if you ran into him late at night on the street you might actually mistake him
for Negan.
Number 4 - Dominic West
He’d have to do it with an American accent.
I feel like you really need to see him on The Wire as Jimmy Mcnulty to appreciate how
good he is at making you like a character that’s awful.
No one expects you to empathize with Negan, but there are moments when we’re supposed
to root for him.
And that’s going to be one of the hardest things for actors to do.
We have to root for a terrible human being.
Not all the time, but in the right moments.
A good example of an evil character that we’re not supposed to root for is Joffrey on Game
Of Thrones.
The value proposition there is way simpler.
Hate his guts.
I think if they want Walking Dead Season 5 and 6 to be as successful as Season 4, we
have to be able to root for the villain every once and a while.
And Dominic West is great at doing that.
Number 3 - Tamoh Penikett
Right now he’s doing a great job of playing an evil angel on Supernatural.
Most people probably just remember him as Helo from Battlestar.
But I’ve really enjoyed him more in the bad guy roles he’s played since then.
He’s got the right look and physicality for it, and as a performer, he won’t necessarily
outswing Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus or any of the other main cast members when they
have to share screen time.
You really want your characters to be equally matched.
It just makes it a lot more fun to watch when it’s hard to tell who’s the biggest badass
in a scene.
And Season 5 is all about the return of badass Rick.
I think the thing the thing that will make Negan seem like an insurmountable obstacle
will be his gang.
He’s just one man, so if Daryl, Rick, Tyreese and Abraham jumped him all at once he’d
go down.
But Negan has the Saviors.
He’s got his own evil version of the survivors.
The other thing about Tamoh is that he’s very attainable as a star.
He’s not like a major A list star, so he’s cheaper than say Nicolas Cage and probably
more willing to play an iconic comic book villain on a tv show.
Number 2 - Ray Stevenson
He was a very very bloody version of The Punisher, but imagine a cross between that character
and his character on Dexter.
Both psychopaths, just like Negan.
But more balanced in terms of the amount of dialogue and violence.
Negan talks a lot and The Punisher does not.
He’s got all the physical requirements and he’s an amazing actor.
If you haven’t you should watch his season of Dexter, it wasn’t the last one.
I think it was Season 7.
He was one of the best villains that show ever had.
And he can do that crazy over the top Punisher level violence too.
Negan actually does go there a few times.
Based on what Scott Gimple has said, Negan’s appearance in Season 5 will be very brief.
So I think it will be Season 6 before we see any horror montages involving him and the
savoirs.
Or maybe as a Season 5 finale cliffhanger reveal.
I can understand the producers wanting to wait to bring him out.
and my Number 1 pick for Negan - Bill Paxton
Hail Hydra, seriously.
What’s the best part of Agents of SHIELD right now.
Evil Bill Paxton.
Even though the writing on Kirman’s Walking Dead books is totally different from the type
of things you see in a Marvel book it totally works.
Just a more sadistic version of the Garrett character he’s playing right now.
And a lot more f-bombs casually dropped into conversation.
Sometimes bigger actors like Paxton don’t want to play villains back to back, but I
feel like he’s done so much with his Garrett role, who’s essentially a C-List Marvel
character.
Think what he could do with someone like Negan.
The thing I like about Paxton is that he makes you enjoy watching awful characters.
He’s so much fun to watch when he’s being bad.
I think the big question we need to ask though is what kind of a tone is the show going to
have when Negan does appear.
Regardless of how long it takes.
Scott Gimple has been pretty clear that the show season to season becomes a different
show.
Like Season 3 Walking Dead can be considered a completely different show than Season 4
Walking Dead and so on.
Negan has a real comedic element to him that the show is going to have to accomodate.
And right now Walking Dead is definitely not full of laughable moments.
The closest thing recently was when you got Carl eating pudding on the roof.
And that was more of a moment of relief, not laugh out loud funny.
When Negan comes, I feel like we’re only going to have two viable emotional responses.
We can either laugh at him because he’s so evil or we can cry because of the horrible
things he does.
I suppose you could try to do both.
But let me know who you’re favorite choice to play Negan is.
Like I said though, don’t expect him to show up until at least the second half of
the season and even then only briefly.
So like I said, while I’m working on my bonus video for next week write your suggestions
for other bonus Walking Dead vids in the comments.
I’ll try to make it a regular Thursday or Friday thing.
Right now click here for my Season 5 predictions and click here for my finale video.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tomorrow.
High Fives!