Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | News | March 31, 2026
Matthew Lillard is having a bit of a moment. Hollywood and his family rallied around him after Quentin Tarantino randomly attacked him à la Paul Dano, he’s in Scream 7, and he walked away with the Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 premiere. He was easily the best part. Although, maybe it was nice to have someone not brooding the whole time? Who’s to say?
Anyway, Lillard was apparently very close to having a massive TV moment with The Walking Dead, and he didn’t even know it for years. During a recent podcast interview, he revealed that he had three callbacks for the role of Negan, which obviously went to Jeffrey Dean Morgan. However, for a very brief window, the creative team was ready to roll the dice on Lillard.
Via The Wrap:
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.
Lillard has no hard feelings and fully agrees that Morgan became a “legend” with the role. Lillard also admits that he would’ve had a wildly different take. “He’s super masculine, and I just would’ve been more wicked and funny.”
No offense to Matthew Lillard, who again is killing it in Daredevil, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was the right call. Hated the show, but he was as close to the comics as it gets. My condolences to Lillard, though, who could’ve had quite the gravy train and been spared the fate of starring in Good Girls. That was a bad beat. No one deserved that.
