'Walking Dead' Season 6 Spoilers: Midseason Finale Prologue Finally Introduces Negan To The AMC TV Series

With the first half of “The Walking Dead” Season 6 officially a thing of the past, AMC is already getting fans amped up for the show’s inevitable return in February. During this week’s companion talk show, “Talking Dead,” a clip was released finally introducing a highly anticipated, and downright scary, villain from the comic books into the series’ canon.

The two-minute clip acts as a prologue for the second half of Season 6 in which the infamous villain Negan’s name is uttered for the very first time. The teaser opens with Daryl (Norman Reedus), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) driving back to Alexandria in the fuel truck that Daryl found during episode 6. They quickly discover that the road has been blocked by a group of eight bikers holding rifles. Their leader instructs the trio to step out of the vehicle or they’ll be killed. When they do, he explains to them that neither the truck, nor their weapons or any of their possessions actually belong to them. Instead, they belong to Negan.

The clip marks the first time that the character’s name had been said on the AMC TV show, despite series creator Robert Kirkman teasing his arrival for several months. As previously reported, Negan was introduced to the comic books in issue No. 100 and sparked one of the most fan-beloved storylines in the series’ run. His introduction to the show has mirrored the comic books in a lot of ways so far, which shouldn’t come as welcomed news because the comic book version of the villain ends up leaving quite a few main characters’ bodies in his wake.

According to Variety, Kirkman says he created Negan in an effort to show fans that, even after 100 issues, his writing wasn’t getting stale. He told host Chris Hardwick on “Talking Dead” that he believes introducing actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan on the hit TV show will have the same effect.

“This catalyst is going to be thrown in at some point in the future that’s just going to fundamentally change everything that we are doing,” he said.

However, just because he was introduced in the teaser for the back half of Season 6 that doesn’t mean he’ll be hitting the ground running when the show returns Feb. 14, 2016. According to The Wrap, many believe that Negan’s introduction will be saved as a sort of cliffhanger button in the last episode of Season 6, before Morgan joins the cast as a series regular in Season 7.

Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of ground to cover between now and that time. Not the least of which is seeing all of the Alexandria survivors that were left in peril at the end of the midseason finale either meet their end or be rescued. While they wait on baited breath, fans can take a look at the two-minute teaser in question below.