'The Walking Dead' showrunner responds to fans who are 'shipping Maggie and Negan: 'There's not a ro
Publish date: 2024-07-08
2021-10-11T02:01:00Z
Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "The Walking Dead" season 11.
Showrunner Angela Kang is aware that some fans are 'shipping Maggie and Negan to be together.
Kang tells Insider that's not their intent with the characters. Sorry.
"The Walking Dead" showrunner is shutting the Maggie and Negan 'shippers down.
"I think that sometimes strong emotions, in any direction, can cross wires," showrunner Angela Kang told Insider when asked what she thought of some fans wanting to see the two together this season. "With these two, there's not a romantic intent that we're doing."
Some fans sensed a tension between the two on season 11, episode five, "Out of the Ashes," as Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) disagreed on their current mission.
After bickering and a slight tussle, the two had an extended moment of silence as they silently stared each other down.
Maggie and Negan exchange an awkward moment of extended silence on season 11, episode five of "TWD." AMC
Some fans interpreted the moment as one of sexual tension between the two.
Before the conversation could go any further, Father Gabriel and Elijah entered the safe house.
It was a shocking online discourse which dismayed other fans online because Negan famously killed Maggie's husband, Glenn, on the show's season seven premiere.
Why would fans even ship these two? They previously played Batman's parents.
In another fandom, Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan were Batman's parents. Warner Bros.
"[Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan], they have amazing creative chemistry. I'll say that," Kang said of what fans may see in a Negan/Maggie pairing. "Those two, they just are really good on screen together. It's also fun to watch them."
We pointed out that some of the 'shipping may come from Cohan and Morgan having played Batman's parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne in Zack Snyder's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," to which Kang chuckled.
Kang sees how some fans can interpret season 11, episode five's as something more than its intent: 'There is still a form of seduction.'
Negan and Maggie on season 11, episode five of "TWD." Josh Stringer/AMC
"I suppose in a very general sense of the word, there is still a form of seduction, in a broad sense, that's happening because these are two people that are getting to know each other in a different context for the first time," Kang told Insider of understanding where some fans are coming from regarding Maggie and Negan.
"They're trying to figure out who the other person is. [They're] not sure if they can trust them or not and it comes with an intense amount of feeling on both sides," Kang continued, adding that they discuss in the writer's room the potential way fans may interpret certain character interactions.
"That's even something that we talked about in the [writer's] room, about the way that sometimes intensity — people may look at it and feel that way," Kang said. "Sometimes we guess at these things."
Would the show really try to pair Maggie with her husband's killer on the final season of "TWD"?
Hasn't Maggie been through enough? AMC
Unlikely.
After working so much on trying to regain fan trust for the unexpected season seven premiere reaction, which Kang previously told Insider it was a "painful thing to acknowledge" and revisit since Cohan's return to "TWD."
Anything more between Maggie and Negan would be a betrayal to the fandom.
"We really are trying to play the story of: 'How do two people who just hate each other and don't trust each other navigate each other?'" Kang told Insider.
"But, I think people love 'Pride and Prejudice' for that same kind of dynamic, I guess," she added.
