Published Sep 5, 2026, 5:00 AM EDT
Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot.
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AMC’s The Walking Dead probably fell off a cliff after Glenn’s death for some fans of the show, while others might be of the opinion that its decline began once Negan was defeated and Rick refused to kill him. That said, there are many fans who think that the show hit its peak in Season 3 or Season 5 and never hit those same highs again. The fact of the matter is that Negan caved Glenn’s head in with a barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat in front of Maggie, who was pregnant with Glenn’s son, and Negan’s actions throughout the series have made it either difficult or impossible for a lot of fans to reconcile.
Now, 10 years later, it’s undoubtedly bewildering to see that Maggie and Negan are going on meet-cutes, and that there are fans who are invested in them being potentially representative of the ‘enemies to lovers’ romance trope. No matter what your stance is on Maggie and Negan, The Walking Dead is fairly unrecognizable today, compared to how it looked 10 years ago.
The Walking Dead Will Never Be The Same
Image via AMCThe Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 Episode 6 was an alternate-universe episode depicting what Maggie and Negan’s lives might’ve been like, and how they might’ve met, had there never been a zombie apocalypse. This episode features sexual and romantic passes between the two, and they are literally told by a palm reader that they’ve had “several lives together,” with them apparently being fated to meet in each.
It’s wild that Maggie and Negan are still together in the Walking Dead universe. Moreover, it’s bold of this episode to explicitly ship them with one another when that was bound to rub many fans the wrong way, particularly those who see Maggie and Negan’s relationship development over the years as a gross stain on the memory of Glenn, whom Negan killed mercilessly and barbarically.
However, not everyone is opposed to it. The room is clearly quite split on Maggie and Negan’s relationship concerning their dynamic when they met on that brutal, fateful day, how it has evolved between the end of The Walking Dead and throughout The Walking Dead: Dead City thus far, and what this AU episode suggests about where it could be headed.
One half of this divide believes that it’s wholly egregious and unacceptable that Maggie is still glued to Negan at the hip, much less that they have a whole spin-off series dedicated to them. Meanwhile, the other half believes that Maggie and Negan’s relationship in The Walking Dead: Dead City is earned following a literal decade of development and strife, and that the sociopathic rapist and murderer has redeemed himself.
Can Maggie And Negan Ever Truly Move On From Glenn’s Death?
Glenn’s death was so successfully horrific and series-altering in The Walking Dead for a few reasons: firstly, Glenn was easily one of the best characters on the show, and an all-around morally decent man, if not a hero; secondly, because Glenn’s death had been faked so convincingly halfway through Season 6, only for him to have managed to crawl underneath a dumpster and escape a ravenous horde, fans had their guard down and weren’t necessarily expecting him to only survive for another nine episodes; and thirdly, even fans who knew that Negan canonically kills Glenn in the comic book series would’ve been surprised since Lucille was still wet with Abraham’s brains and blood, and it was assumed that the worst was over (Abraham was the show’s surprise Negan kill, after all).
Ultimately, these are fictional characters. And while it can either be distressing or thrilling to see a development such as this that’s obviously twisted the knife and ruffled feathers, it’s neat that The Walking Dead has enjoyed the longevity it’s had and is no less unafraid to make controversial storytelling choices that could drastically affect how audiences perceive it a decade later.
Release Date 2010 - 2022-00-00
Showrunner Frank Darabont, Angela Kang, Scott M. Gimple, Glen Mazzara
Directors David Boyd, Ernest R. Dickerson, Billy Gierhart, Guy Ferland, Laura Belsey, Jeffrey F. January, Michael Cudlitz, Sharat Raju, Alrick Riley, Michael Slovis, Michelle MacLaren, Rosemary Rodriguez, Seith Mann, Tricia Brock, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Daniel Sackheim, Fred Toye, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Jon Amiel, Kari Skogland, Kevin Dowling, Tawnia McKiernan, Larry Teng, Julius Ramsay
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Norman Reedus
Daryl Dixon
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Melissa McBride
Carol Peletier
English (US) ·