The Walking Dead Nearly Cast This Daredevil: Born Again Star as Negan

If you want a peek at just how weird Hollywood casting can get, here’s a juicy one for you: Matthew Lillard, who you probably know from Scream or as the voice of Shaggy in about a million Scooby-Doo projects, almost landed the role of Negan on The Walking Dead. And I mean really almost. Apparently, he actually got the part… for about ten minutes.

“You Had the Part for Like 10 Minutes”

Here’s how it went down: Lillard chatted about all this on Kristian Harloff’s The Big Thing Podcast. According to him, he auditioned for Negan and made it through all the callbacks—three times, to be exact. For a hot second, it looked like he was about to swing Lucille for a living.

Then, at a San Diego Comic-Con (because where else do wildly specific Hollywood stories reach their climax?), Walking Dead creator Frank Darabont pulled Lillard aside and straight-up told him:

"You have no idea. You had the part for like 10 minutes."

What happened? Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s agents rang up the studio and locked in their own guy. The rest, as every comic con Negan cosplayer will remind you, is zombie-infested history.

Two Very Different Negans

Lillard says his take on Negan would have been, in his words, 'more wicked and funny.' He didn’t mince words about how different things could have looked: Morgan’s Negan was straight-up ‘super masculine’ and ‘badass,’ while Lillard would have dialed up the crazy instead of the brute force.

You kind of have to wonder how that might have changed the show’s DNA—or at least a few memes. Let’s be real, though: Morgan’s Negan wasn’t just a big villain; he became the show’s standout antihero, stuck around for years, and is now a fixture at conventions everywhere.

‘That Part Goes On. He Becomes a Legend.’

Lillard was well aware of what he missed out on. As he put it, landing Negan would have locked in 'another 10 years of work.' And that’s not an exaggeration—in a decade that’s seen a lot of Walking Dead actors come and go, Morgan’s presence has been the constant, making Negan as much a brand as he is a character.

Since the close call, Lillard hasn’t exactly disappeared. He’s kept busy with the Scream movies, loads of Scooby-Doo voice work, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and lately, he popped up in Daredevil: Born Again.

The Laundry List: Lillard’s Close Call vs. What Actually Happened

• Matthew Lillard got through three rounds of auditions for Negan and was (very briefly) cast.
• Series creator Frank Darabont personally told him the role was his—until Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s camp swooped in.
• Lillard envisioned a ‘wicked and funny’ Negan; Morgan’s take was gruffer and more intimidating.
• Lillard found out all this while at Comic-Con, being told to his face that he had the gig for all of ten minutes.
• Morgan’s Negan became a pop culture staple, outlasting almost everyone else on The Walking Dead and launching a thousand cosplay bats.
• Lillard reflects that the role could have been a big career pivot—though he’s kept plenty busy since.

So, next time you see another Negan at a convention, you might spare a thought for the alternate universe where Matthew Lillard got to deliver all those 'eeny, meeny, miny, moe' speeches with a little more wicked humor—and maybe less leather jacket swagger.