Matthew Lillard nearly brought his dark comedic twist to “The Walking Dead” franchise. In fact, series creator Frank Darabont told him that the role was his – for all of 10 minutes.
On Kristian Harloff’s “The Big Thing Podcast,” the “Scream” star revealed that he almost had Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s role as Negan.
Lillard told the host that he auditioned for the AMC team, even returning three times for callbacks, but the studio ended up going in another direction. Instead of the “Scooby-Doo” star, the post-apocalyptic comic book series chose Morgan as the antagonist turned antihero.
“He’s super masculine, and I just would’ve been more wicked and funny,” Lillard explained. “He was super badass and masculine. We would have had just very different takes.”
When Lillard was at San Diego Comic-Con for “Twin Peaks,” he revealed that he ran into “The Walking Dead” team.
“The creator of the show comes over, and he said, ‘You have no idea. You had the part for like 10 minutes,’” Lillard revealed. “At that point, I would’ve had another 10 years of work.”
The series creator added that the team was moving on with him as Negan for about 10 minutes before Morgan’s agents called and said he would take the part after all.
“That part goes on. He becomes a legend,” Lillard explained. “Every [convention] you go there’s 10 Negans walking around.”
“The Walking Dead” premiered in 2010 and ran on AMC for 11 seasons.
Since 2010 Lillard has appeared in the “Scream” franchises, several animated “Scooby-Doo” series and “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”
