Travel back to The Walking Dead’s most infamous episode in Season 7, and do you know what you’d see? Hordes of Walking Dead fans sitting on our couches with tears streaming down our faces after watching Negan brutally murder Glenn as Maggie looked on in utter horror. Now, imagine a time traveler offering us poor suckers a tissue and saying, “Don’t worry. Seven years from now, Maggie and Negan will be batting eyes at each other in their own spinoff.”
Okay, “batting eyes” is a bit dramatic. However, actors Lauren Cohen and Jeffrey Dean Morgan emit enough chemistry that a good portion of the fandom thought they were going to smash their lips together during that heated encounter in Season 11, Episode 5 of The Walking Dead. Flash forward to The Walking Dead: Dead City, and we get more of the same. Apparently, when Maggie wants to kill Negan, she also looks like she wants to kiss him–and Negan seems like he wouldn’t mind.
Neggie Is Divisive, to Say the Least
Those searing looks have divided the remaining fandom that’s still brave enough to keep up with The Walking Dead’s many spinoffs. The “Neggie” shippers hold on to an enemies-to-lovers fantasy while the rest shudder at the mere thought. Despite The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang telling Business Insider that there is no “romantic intent” between Maggie and Negan back in 2021, it hasn’t stopped Dead City from teasing that possibility. The spinoff’s first season might’ve only scratched the surface of that idea, but Season 2 continues to suggest that, deep down, Maggie and Negan… like each other? Ask a certain group of fans, and they might use an even bigger word.
While all these twisted feelings make for lots of juicy TV drama, it also lends to Dead City’s biggest problem: Where does Maggie and Negan’s relationship go from here?
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A Maggie and Negan Romance Is a Bad Idea
None of this is really new. The Walking Dead’s final season saw Maggie and Negan reach a shaky understanding when they set off on a supply run. Negan saved Maggie’s life not just once but TWICE. Come Dead City, that dynamic continues. Maggie still hasn’t forgiven Negan, but she’s not out to kill him every second… well, usually, anyway. Dead City’s first season ends with Maggie trying to stab Negan, only for the fight to end in that weird, maybe erotic “are we about to kill or kiss each other” kind of way it usually does. As Angela Kang once said, “I think sometimes strong emotions, in any direction, can cross wires.” And “crossing wires” seems to be what Maggie and Negan do best.
Don’t get me wrong. Watching two people who don’t trust each other team up makes for great television, but it can also get old. For Dead City to work beyond Season 2, Maggie and Negan can’t just replay the same old song and dance. And sorry to all the enemies-to-lovers stans, but romance isn’t the answer.
Dead City already struggles to give Maggie character development unrelated to a male character. She’s either wringing her hands about Hershel (Logan Kim) or clenching them around Negan. Having her pucker up with the man who bashed her husband’s head in while LAUGHING would be the ultimate disrespect. As a fan aptly stated on a Reddit thread discussing a potential Neggie romance, “Maggie may as well go spit on Glenn’s grave.”
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Will Dead City Make Neggie Legit?
Let’s not overlook the fact that Dead City decided to write out Negan’s wife, Annie (Medina Senghore), with some half-hearted info dump about Negan shipping her off to Missouri with their child. The canon story: He was trying to protect her. My personal theory: Dead City wanted to make Negan feel like a slick-talking, leather jacket-wearing bachelor again. Maybe that’s for Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s fans, who rightly think he’s the hunkiest anti-hero ever to swing a bat, but perhaps it’s also for Maggie’s benefit. The Walking Dead might not have had “romantic intent,” but Dead City seems okay with playing fast and loose with their relationship.
Still, Glenn’s death inspired a large chunk of the fandom to quit the show for good. Just like Maggie, it also wasn’t forgiven. A romance between Maggie and Negan would likely come with another big dropoff. Dead City knows that just as well as anyone with access to the Internet. Still, it also knows that leaning in (even slightly) to deeper feelings between Maggie and Negan will surely entice fans. Go too far, however, and they risk losing them.
Maggie and Negan have a complicated relationship that warrants careful handling. Asking Maggie to forgive Negan is ludicrous, but having her stalk around angry all the time is also tiring. At times, it feels like Dead City should’ve never been a thing, and let’s be real, it probably never would have been if not for Cohen and Morgan’s stellar chemistry. What comes next for their relationship is unclear, but if having them exchange friendship bracelets like Carol and Daryl feels sacrilegious, a romance is downright unholy.
The Walking Dead: Dead City airs Sundays on AMC.
