The Walking Dead Just Cast Negan’s Wife, Lucille
In an upcoming 2021 episode, AMC's The Walking Dead television series will introduce Negan’s deceased wife in a recurring role.
The Walking Dead’s Negan is known for carrying around a barbed-wire covered baseball bat named Lucille, after his late wife. But very soon, The Walking Dead television series will introduce Negan’s deceased wife in a recurring role.
Hilarie Burton Morgan, the wife of Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, will play Lucille, starting with the six episodes of Season Ten debuting in early 2021. While Hilarie Burton Morgan will be in multiple episodes, it is unclear how long her arc will be, or in what capacity she will appear on the show.
In the comics, Lucille died of cancer around the time that the zombie outbreak was beginning. When Lucille eventually died in the hospital, she immediately turned into a walker. In Lucille’s final days, Negan stayed by her bedside for as long as possible.
Hilarie Burton Morgan broke the news on her Twitter, stating that she loves working with her husband and loves watching Jeffrey Dean Morgan become Negan. Hilarie Burton Morgan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have previously worked together on Friday Night in With the Morgans, which premiered in April on AMC.
Beyond playing the future Mrs. Negan, Hilarie Burton Morgan is probably most well-known as a host for MTV throughout the early 2000s. Morgan was also one of the main cast members on One Tree Hill, as Peyton Sawyer. Since then, Morgan has appeared on several television series, including the Halle Berry-starring Extant, Lethal Weapon, and most recently, Council of Dads.
Despite the recent announcement that The Walking Dead would conclude with the show’s eleventh season in 2021, the news hasn’t slowed down for the franchise. As the show starts wrapping down, it seems likely we can expect more interesting casting news, such as Negan’s wife Lucille appearing in the penultimate season.
As for the continuation of The Walking Dead on AMC, the network recently debuted The Walking Dead: World Beyond in October. This limited series will only have two seasons, and focuses on the first generation of kids who have grown up during the zombie apocalypse. Once the eleventh season concludes, AMC is also planning a spinoff centered around Norman Reedus’ Daryl and Melissa McBride’s Carol, which is set to premiere in 2023.
In addition to all this, another new series, Tales of the Walking Dead, is currently in production. The series will be an anthology series that explains the backstories of new and existing characters, which seems like a perfect way to bring back Negan and Lucille in the future.
Even with all this news of Negan and various other television shows in the future, The Walking Dead will also soon be branching out into films, as Andrew Lincoln has signed on to reprise the role of Rick Grimes in a series of three new films. Other Walking Dead actors such as Danai Gurira and Pollyanna McIntosh will appear in the films, which will tell new stories that aren’t from the comics.
The casting of Hilarie Burton Morgan as Negan’s wife Lucille is a nice addition to the cast as the show starts to wind down, but with the franchise growing beyond The Walking Dead’s conclusion, it will be interesting to see if we will see more of Negan and Lucille even after the flagship series ends.
