(If you’re not caught up on “The Walking Dead,” you may encounter spoilers below.)
Now that “The Walking Dead” Season 8 is finally back from its winter hiatus, All Out War is back in full swing–and that means no one knows who to trust.
Fans have known for a while that Dwight (Austin Amelio) has been double-crossing the vicious Saviors. And now TheWrap has caught up with Steven Ogg, who plays Simon, to ask how his baddie right-hand-man to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) would react to Dwight’s betrayal.
“He won’t be happy, right?” Ogg said of what appears to be an inevitable revelation on the show. “That’s the whole world: Everyone is rather duplicitous and working off each other, so honestly, how surprised would Simon be?”
“Can anyone be that surprised when anyone turns? Everyone’s surviving, right?” he added. “Everyone’s doing their best… I really don’t think resigned is the right word, but… he’d definitely be pissed off. Is it possible to be resigned and pissed off? I don’t know. We’ll see how good Simon is, if he can be pissed off and resigned.”
So, if pretty much anyone in the zombie apocalypse is capable of such betrayal, would Simon ever betray Negan? After all, Simon has exhibited some signs of wanting more power, like when Negan and Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) were trapped in the trailer and Simon tried to get the Saviors to listen to him.
“I don’t know if that is a betrayal so much as, you know, these guys have different philosophies,” Ogg said. “Everyone has different ideas, so I certainly can’t see it as being a betrayal, so much as: ‘OK, you’re doing it this way, and if this isn’t working, why don’t we try this way.’”
Further, Ogg said he thinks Simon enjoys the freedom that comes with being a number two. “I think Simon enjoys being in the position he’s in. He gets a lot more done. He has all the freedom. When you’re not number one and you’re not the leader, you don’t have to be as up front with everything,” he said.
“When everyone’s looking at you, the leader, as number one, you’re under a microscope, you know?” he continued. “There’s a lot more pressure. So that’s how I’m sort of seeing it. This allows Simon to have a little more freedom and leeway.”
Still, Ogg said an “ideal situation” for Simon might be having his own outpost. The Saviors work because they’re able to reap the benefits of all the surrounding, smaller communities.
“The irony of that would be: Would he potentially be a leader of another community? I don’t think you want that. So that would be the ideal — a different branch, use one of the outposts as another sort of smaller company, if you will.”
In the Season 8B trailer, we see Simon confronting Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). Could that be a sign of him trying to take over a community of his own? At this point, he seems to be getting a feel for Jadis and her followers.
“Everyone has their outpost, right? So now it’s a matter of, with the s— going down… everyone’s going to confront these other communities now,” Ogg said. “There’s gotta be who’s playing who, who’s doing what, who do I have on my side, who can I trust, who can’t I trust? So, this is Simon going to the heapsters, the dumpsters, and he’s gonna figure out, OK, what exactly happened there before, what are we willing to forgive and forget, what are we willing to work with… It’s ‘let’s have a little talk. Let me give you an opportunity to chat.’ …To figure out where people are coming from and what the game plan is here.”
“The Walking Dead” airs Sundays on AMC.