They line up all of the survivors from the van (Rick, Carl, Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, Rosita, Aaron, Eugene, Abraham) telling them that Negan wants revenge for the Saviors who were killed.

He notices a figure falling from the bell tower and smugly repeats that he knew Rick's sniper was good as dead, not realizing that it is not Andrea, but Connor.

"[26] After Rick is hit with the arrow, Negan and Dwight retreat to the rest of The Savior horde, hoping to devise a plan of attack against the remaining survivors at Hilltop.

[34] However, Negan decides not to escape and remains in his cell with the door open until Rick comes downstairs, then taunts him about the numerous ways he could have destroyed Alexandria without anyone realizing, but claimed to stay as sign of good faith and an offering to amend their trust.

In the onset of the outbreak, Negan ventured out into the walker-filled wilderness to find medicine for Lucille's pancreatic cancer, but when he returned, he found that she had died and become a walker.

Dwight also brings out Daryl, Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos), and makes them get on their knees, as well.

Negan chooses the victim in a game of "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", which he recites while pointing Lucille at each member of the group, before landing on an unseen individual, saying, "you are it."

He grows to genuinely like Carl, and later brings him to watch as he burns Mark (Griffin Freeman), a Savior who has displeased him, with a hot iron to teach everyone a lesson about "following the rules".

When Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) confesses to making the bullet, Negan takes him prisoner and tells Rick that he is "way in the hole" for this incident no matter how many supplies they gather, before departing.

Negan brings a coffin forward and reveals Sasha is inside, stating they can have her back alive and he will let most of them live if they meet his demands, which include all their weapons, Daryl returned to him and for Rick to pick someone to be killed by Lucille.

Once back at the Sanctuary, he questions Eugene as to how Sasha died in the coffin (suspecting foul play on his part) before declaring to the assembled Saviors that they are going to war.

When Gabriel tries to get Negan to confess his sins, he is evasive until he finally admits his greatest regret was his treatment of his first wife prior to the outbreak, stating she died of cancer and he could not bring himself to put her down.

Unarmed and being hunted in the dark, Negan attempts to make a deal, offering to forgive Rick's transgressions and reduce the Savior's cut of supplies in exchange for peace.

18 months later, Rick goes down a basement to talk to an imprisoned Negan, telling him about how everything has changed since the war ended, and how the communities are working together on fixing a bridge, which will be the link to their future.

Six years later, Negan remains a prisoner in Alexandria, but has apparently accepted his fate, and has even struck up a friendship with Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming), Rick's young daughter.

Negan helps Judith with her homework and tells her a story from his childhood where he tried to take in stray dogs only for it to go badly for him when she asks for advice with dealing with Magna's group.

Negan risks his own life to chase after Judith and save her, finding her by following the barking dog, though his leg is injured by flying debris in the process.

While defending Lydia (Cassady McClincy) from an attack by a group of thieves called the Highwaymen, Negan kills one of their number, Margo (Jerri Tubbs), in self-defense and faces possible execution.

Apparently reverting to his old ways and armed with a new Lucille created by Brandon, Negan joins the Whisperers, a rival faction bent on destroying the other communities, and becomes the right hand and lover of their leader, Alpha (Samantha Morton).

When the final battle comes, Negan at first refuses to take any part despite his greater experience in walking amongst the dead, knowing that Beta and the other Whisperers will be gunning for him and going so far as to tell Lydia that getting involved is futile and it will end badly.

In a series of flashbacks, Negan is depicted 12 years earlier, in the early days of the apocalypse, as a former high school gym teacher and the loving but unfaithful husband of a woman named Lucille (Hilarie Burton).

During a brief skirmish, Maggie and Negan work together to kill one of the Reapers, but they are subsequently forced to leave behind a severely injured Alden (Callan McAuliffe) in order to continue their mission.

They eventually reunite with Gabriel and Maggie's friend Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) and come up with a new plan to lead a massive horde to attack Meridian and take out the Reapers.

However, the assault goes awry when Leah Shaw (Lynn Collins) kills the Reaper leader Pope (Ritchie Coster) and orders a rocket barrage into the courtyard where Maggie, Negan, Daryl, Elijah and the walkers are located.

The proposed contact was a ruse on the part of Hornsby and intended to track down a missing arms shipment and the Commonwealth group was prepared to kill everyone in Riverbend.

When Milton's narcissistic son Sebastian (Teo Rapp-Olsson) goes on the run after being revealed as part of a scheme to force impoverished members of the community to undertake risky missions to obtain money and valuables from sites overrun by walkers, Negan and Carol save him from being killed by angry Commonwealth residents and bring him to his mother.

Nevertheless, Milton does nothing to help Negan when her treacherous right-hand man Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) imprisons him, Annie, and Ezekiel in Commonwealth's labor camp.

In the series finale, "Rest in Peace," Negan joins the coalition of soldiers and freed prisoners to fight Milton as a herd of walkers head toward the Commonwealth.

In the years since the defeat of Pamela Milton and Lance Hornsby, Maggie has been forced to abandon the original Hilltop due to the damage from the Whisperers ultimately being too severe to repair.

With the kidnapping of her son and her reunion and reluctant alliance with her husband's killer, Maggie is forced to deal with a resurgence of trauma over Glenn's death, particularly as Negan has reverted to many of his old ways.