‘Fear The Walking Dead’: Garret Dillahunt Reveals How He’d Deal With Negan

In the Season 8 finale of “The Walking Dead,” Rick (Andrew Lincoln) slit Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) throat with a shard of glass. But instead of letting him die, Rick ordered Siddiq (Avi Nash) to save Negan. Though a lot of fans were disappointed by Rick’s decision to keep Negan alive, AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” star Garret Dillahunt said that his character John would have done the same thing.

In a recent interview with TV Guide, Dillahunt said that John wouldn’t have taken Negan’s life, either. But since John was a police officer and a trick shooter before the apocalypse, Dillahunt said that his character would have done his signature move to disarm Negan.

“I probably wouldn’t slit his throat, but at least I would have probably shot his hand,” the actor said. “The thing is, I’m a good shot, you know? Which I think is refreshing in the ‘Walking Dead’ universe. I don’t waste a lot of bullets.”

Interestingly, Dillahunt was once rumored to be on the run for the role of Negan. Though the iconic role ultimately went to Morgan, Dillahunt said that the rumors helped him get the role of John on “Fear the Walking Dead.”

“It’s a little blown out of proportion,” Dillahunt admitted to The Hollywood Reporter when asked if there’s any truth to reports that he was one of the top contenders to portray the Lucille-wielding villain on the flagship series.

“I was doing this show called ‘Hand of God’ on Amazon, a pretty hardcore character there, and I knew Negan was coming up,” Dillahunt recalled. “I’m a fan of the shows. I’ve watched them pretty regularly from the outset, both of them. And I remember I had tweeted or did something... you know how old people get a hold of social media and things always goes wrong, right? (Laughs) And I tweeted a picture of one of the ‘Walking Dead’ compendiums, and I said, ‘Just a little light reading for the day.’ And people went nuts because they thought I was inferring that I was [playing Negan]. ‘Oh, that’s the compendium that Negan is involved in!’ You know? I didn’t know this! ‘Negan shows up in that, I bet he’s gonna be Negan.”

“Then I started looking at it, and I was like, ‘That would be cool to be Negan,’” the 53-year-old actor continued. Although he knew he couldn’t get the role given his contract with “Hand of God,” Dillahunt still pestered “The Walking Dead” universe chief content officer Scott M. Gimple about it. “That started a relationship between me and Scott, which might have led to this character [John], so I’m pretty happy about it,” the “Deadwood” alum said.

“Fear the Walking Dead” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.