Posted in: AMC, Fear The Walking Dead, Preview, Trailer, TV, Walking Dead | Tagged: amc, dead city, Maggie Rhee, negan, The Walking Dead, TWD

The Walking Dead: Dead City S02 Pre-Production Update; Negan's Family

The Walking Dead: Dead City star Jeffrey Dean Morgan & showrunner Eli Jorné talk Negan/Maggie "deal," where Negan's family is at, and more.

A day after the release of the official trailer for AMC & AMC+'s Jeffrey Dean Morgan & Lauren Cohan-starring The Walking Dead: Dead City, we're getting some new insights into the series courtesy of Morgan as well as showrunner Eli Jorné. Speaking with EW, Morgan discusses the situation that leads to Negan (Morgan) and Maggie (Cohan) having to team up & head into the heart of NYC. Following that, Morgan and Jorné briefly discuss where Negan is at on a personal level when the series kicks off – and let's just say that it's not coming across too promising. But a quick note regarding the show's future – the article also confirms that pre-production on a second season was already underway.

By now, we know that Hershel (Logan Kim) gets abducted by the Croat (Željko Ivanek) and taken to Manhattan – thus, the reason that Maggie & Negan have to take a trip to The Big Apple. But it's not out of loyalty or keeping a promise that convinces Negan to join Maggie – it's blackmail. "She kind of blackmails him into helping," Morgan explains. "She knows that he's a wanted man, so she's like, 'Look, I can help you get away. They're on your tail, and we can get out of here. You help me save Herschel, and then I won't turn you in.' So it's maybe not starting off on the greatest foot."

As for that part about Negan being a "wanted man"? Yeah, it's safe to say that things haven't been going too well for Negan since the series finale of the long-running series. "When we meet Negan, he's in a bit of a down-and-out state. I don't know that he's found his perfect little happy ending with a bow on it," Jorné teased. Okay, time to pause the record for a second. Didn't Negan end TWD with the promise of a new life with a new family? So where's Annie (Medina Senghore) and the baby? Well, that's when Morgan gets a little ominous with his response: "He's not with his family, so some s**t has happened."

Here's a look at the official trailer for AMC's The Walking Dead: Dead City, set to hit screens beginning June 18th. Following that, we have a look at what else we know about the spinoff series so far. And yes, that's "Gimme Danger" by Iggy & The Stooges (courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment):

The Walking Dead: Dead City – A Preview

AMC's The Walking Dead: Dead City follows Maggie (Cohan) and Negan (Morgan) traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland – on a mission to save Hershel (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. In addition to Cohan and Morgan, the series stars Gaius Charles, Zeljko Ivanek (aka The Croat), Karina Ortiz, Jonathan Higginbotham, Mahina Napoleon, and Logan Kim, with Cohan, Morgan, TWD CCO Scott M. Gimple, Showrunner Eli Jorné, and Brian Bockrath as executive producers.

TWD: Lauren Cohan on Maggie Rhee

"We end up picking up in New York at the bottom of a really unexpected mountain, where maybe things have gone well for a period of time, but we're back at this challenge, just like these challenges that always seem to keep cropping up," Cohan shared during a conversation with EW. Here's a look at what else Cohan had to share:

Cohan Teases "Moving Target" Enemy & "The Enemy Within": "Nothing is through rose-colored glasses. Because the thing that comes up, it's like, okay, so we overcame this obstacle of the Commonwealth and these things, that doesn't mean life is easy just because you quashed one enemy. And the enemy is this moving target. It's also the enemy within."

Cohan on "Maggie's Greatest Weakness" Being "Exploited": "When we go into the new show, Maggie's greatest weakness is definitely exploited." Though the obvious assumption would be that it has something to do with Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller). But Cohan's follow-up comment hints that some other unconsidered possibilities could be at play. "Sometimes it's not the big things that are the hard things; it's the little things. And those little things become very, very big things because they are our own blind spots, and they are our own greatest weakness."

Expect Maggie/Negan Tensions to Not Just Resume, But Grow: "It's going to be really, really hard for her to continue, even with the best intentions she had of letting Negan have his territory and her getting on with her life and finding the hope and trying to build this future."

TWD: Jeffrey Dean Morgan on Negan

"I think time apart probably will make it worse. Negan has an opportunity to kind of fall into some old habits, because it's all a survival mechanism for him, especially if he's not with the group. The group kind of tamed him in a lot of ways, and to fit in, he had to stop being who he was. And I think away from this group, he is likely to fall into some old traps and old behaviors," Morgan explained during an interview with EW when asked if he thought Negan's time away from Maggie was a good thing for him. Because Negan's survival instinct will always drive him to do just that… survive. "We know how Negan has survived. We have seen him in his progression on how he's survived and what he does to adapt, and I think he will always be adaptable in any situation. But away from people, he doesn't do well."

And Morgan isn't a big fan of the idea that time apart would change Maggie's perceptions of Negan. "As uneasy of an alliance it is that Maggie and Negan have, I think Negan being out of Maggie's line of sight for a couple years is still never going to make what happened to her go away. I don't know if us getting along in any way is going to last. I don't know if it can," Morgan shared. And a big part of the blame for things not running as smoothly as they could (and should) rests at the feet of Morgan's on-screen alter-ego. "Negan is a bit of a screwup. He's just that guy that you want to smack. He's a punchable guy, and I understand that, being the guy that says the stuff that comes out of his mouth. I want to punch him sometimes!" Morgan admits with a laugh. Adding new faces to the equation doesn't exactly make for a better fit, either. "Look, we know that he's going to run off to New York City. It's him and Maggie, and there's not a lot of people with him. So, if I do the math on this, he's going to be in trouble. It's going to be a bad combination for him."

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