I, like millions of others, watched The Walking Dead when it first started. I dropped off the AMC post-apocalyptic drama when weekly viewing started to feel like showing up to a meeting that could have been an email. Its glacial pacing and the sense that it was mostly going nowhere got to be frustrating enough to make me stop watching around the beginning of season four, but the ubiquity of those early seasons in the cultural zeitgeist meant I was usually aware of big developments, such as Negan’s brutal killing of Glenn at the beginning of season seven. That was when a lot of folks dropped off the show, though it went on four more seasons and now has several spin-offs under its belt. One of those stars Negan and Maggie, who is the widow of the aforementioned, brutally murdered Glenn…so you can imagine why I would be very confused upon seeing images of the two getting extremely comfortable with one another at a bar.
The Walking Dead: Dead City has Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan reprising their roles as Negan and Maggie as they fight to survive in a post-apocalyptic New York City, and there’s some semblance of civilization here, though it’s caught up in the usual power struggles that arise when people in the world of The Walking Dead attempt to recreate polite society. Throughout, the two are still clearly dealing with their traumatic history which, again, includes Maggie having watched this guy literally bash in the brains of her husband and the father of her child. But as many fans will point out, Maggie has now known Negan longer than she ever knew Glenn, and the former has spent several seasons of both The Walking Dead and Dead City reforming himself and trying to find a new place in this world.
When Dead City was first announced, it was definitely a moment of realization for me that The Walking Dead was no longer the major pop culture behemoth it once was, because after years away from the show, I had no idea how Negan and Maggie could possibly be allies, much less the starring characters of their own spin-off. But now, a clip from the upcoming third season has fans in a tizzy because it looks like these two are getting…really close.
AMC posted a behind-the-scenes look at the show’s upcoming episodes, and there are clips that appear to be taken from throughout the season. Most of them don’t draw that much attention. There’s walkers, violence, and sad, roughed-up people staring solemnly at each other across a dilapidated room. You know, normal Walking Dead stuff. However, at the 3:45 mark, we see Negan and Maggie drunk and getting a little touchy-feely. We see Maggie specifically touching Negan’s face in a way that seems like they’re just having a silly little time in a drunken stupor, but these types of interactions are what often lead to something a bit more intimate.
This is where the whole “parachuting back into The Walking Dead” thing gets weird, right? Obviously it’s been a whole decade since Glenn’s death, and even if I haven’t been watching, the show has done a lot to show how both Negan and Maggie have done the work to move forward and be allies navigating all those complex emotions. But is the insinuation of a possible romantic or simply sexual relationship between the two a bridge too far? Does it go beyond believability and feel like absurd fanfiction making its way into the canon? That’s what Walking Dead fans, both current and lapsed, are struggling with as Dead City is at least knowingly teasing that possibility.
drunk negan. drunk maggie. she’s touching his face. yeah we’re cooked. FUCKKKKKKKKK pic.twitter.com/HvXZYeqr9c
— cartii (@notnickkrob) July 8, 2026
here’s the explanation in a video actually https://t.co/FgsgRrMwlX pic.twitter.com/Dde9drcZza
— siyyan (@sctterbraind) July 9, 2026
reminder that the writers ruined their friendship bc rick wouldn’t kill negan, but now maggie’s playing with his face in a fucking bar ?? pic.twitter.com/ZSPeqMiozf
— brooke ❦ (@ricksprickk) July 9, 2026
I keep imagining the reaction of someone who stopped watching the series after Glenn’s death and then stumbled upon this…
— screencaps (@screenscaps) July 8, 2026
The Walking Dead: Dead City’s third season premieres on AMC on July 26, and while I’m not walker-brained enough to go back and watch all the seasons I missed to see where this goes, I will be very curious to see just how far the show pushes the relationship between Negan and Maggie a decade after Glenn’s death, and will be prepared to watch the fandom melt down if it goes where it seems like it might.
