Matthew Lillard Almost Played Negan on ‘The Walking Dead’

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Jeffrey Dean Morgan is famous for his memorable and intense performance as Negan on The Walking Dead, but surprisingly, another actor was almost cast in the role.

Matthew Lillard was originally chosen to play the most famous villain in The Walking Dead, but he didn’t know it at the time. Had he taken the role, the character would have been portrayed very differently.

In a recent interview on The Big Thing Podcast, the actor from Scream shared that he auditioned for the role of Negan and made it through several rounds of callbacks, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan was ultimately cast.

You know, it’s wild to think about ‘what ifs’ in Hollywood. A few years after I didn’t get a role I auditioned for, I found out just how close I actually was to being on The Walking Dead. Seriously, for a really short time, it looked like I’d landed the part! I just didn’t realize it was even a possibility back then.

Lillard shared that the show’s creator told him he’d almost landed the role, but lost it quickly. Lillard added that securing the part would have meant a decade of consistent work for him.

Ultimately, Morgan’s performance was perfect for the part. He fully embodied the ruthless and crazed character, and somehow managed to remain captivating even when doing terrible things. (We’ll always miss Glenn.)

You know, it’s fascinating to hear how different actors approach the same role. Apparently, if I’d gotten the chance to play Negan, I would have gone in a completely different direction than Jeffrey Dean Morgan. He brought this really strong, tough vibe to the character, which was great, but I think I would have leaned more into the humor and the sheer villainy – a bit more wicked and playful, you could say. We definitely would have had very different interpretations, and it’s fun to imagine how that would have played out!

We were hoping to see Damian Lillard on The Walking Dead—we’re fans of everything he does—but the Scooby-Doo star has been appearing in a lot of projects lately, including Scream 7, The Life of Chuck, and the Five Nights at Freddy’s movies.

Lillard also plays Mr. Charles in Episode 8 of the Disney+ streaming series Daredevil: Born Again.

Every Scream Movie Ranked

7. Scream 3 (2000)

Scream 3 had a lot of potential for satire, being a movie about trilogies themselves. However, the film discovered that the conventions of trilogies aren’t really that different from those of any sequel series. This makes much of the film’s commentary feel flat and uninspired. After releasing three movies in just five years, the franchise was clearly running out of fresh ideas. The film even resorts to Ghostface mimicking anyone’s voice – even people who are deceased! – which feels like a desperate stretch of the established ‘rules’. It’s no surprise it took over a decade for a fourth Scream movie to finally appear.

6. Scream VI (2023)

While some well-done scare sequences, including a clever opening, prevent this film from being a total failure, it ultimately falls a bit flat. Scream VI feels less like a self-aware commentary on horror movies and more like it’s simply repeating familiar patterns from previous installments. And the ending is particularly weak – possibly the worst in the entire series, costing it significant points.

5. Scream 7 (2026)

The original Scream was a clever and refreshing horror film that playfully poked fun at tired genre tropes. But by 2026, the series had become predictable and repetitive. While this latest installment has its flaws – a disappointing ending and some questionable character decisions – it’s good to see Neve Campbell back as Sidney. She brings real emotional depth to the role, portraying a middle-aged mother trying to shield her daughter, Isabel May, from a haunting past… and, of course, Ghostface.

4. Scream 4 (2011)

The Scream movies are most effective when they clearly satirize a specific horror trope; the first Scream poked fun at slasher films, Scream 2 tackled sequels, and so on. Scream 4‘s weakness is that it struggles to find a consistent target for its commentary. It hints at being a self-aware ‘legacyquel’—a concept that wasn’t really established until years later—so there weren’t any established clichés to parody. It also attempts to satirize early YouTube culture, but that platform was still relatively new at the time. While the killer reveal is effective, the over-the-top, bloody hospital finale is even more ridiculous than usual for this series.

3. Scream (2022)

After an eleven-year gap, the latest Scream movie benefits from poking fun at the tropes common in recent legacy sequels. The film introduces a new group of teenagers linked to the original characters, though they don’t quite capture the energy and appeal of the first cast – though Jack Quaid as Sam’s boyfriend provides some great comedic moments. Unlike previous sequels that struggled to build a cohesive mythology, this installment offers a Ghostface with a genuinely compelling motivation.

2. Scream 2 (1997)

The cast of Scream 2 is widely considered the strongest in the series, featuring all the original stars alongside impressive additions like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Timothy Olyphant, Laurie Metcalf, Jada Pinkett Smith, Omar Epps, Portia de Rossi, and Jerry O’Connell. After brilliantly satirizing slasher films in the first movie, Scream 2 cleverly turned its attention to poking fun at sequels themselves—and the new clichés that come with them. Many fans believe this was the last Scream film to truly feel innovative, which may be linked to the fact that franchise creator Kevin Williamson only wrote one of the four movies that followed.

1. Scream (1996)

Scream wasn’t simply a good or great movie—it was truly important. Many consider it the most influential horror film since the original Halloween in 1978. It broke the typical horror movie mold by featuring characters who were fans of the genre themselves and used their knowledge to survive—or even become—killers. While it led to many copycat films, and the formula eventually became predictable, that wasn’t a fault of Scream itself. It remains a landmark achievement in horror cinema.

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2026-04-01 09:56