Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan has explained why The Walking Dead: Dead City needed to overhaul its formula in Season 3, saying the long-running hostility between his character, Negan, and Lauren Cohan's Maggie could not be sustained indefinitely without losing viewers or even actors. In an interview with Collider, Morgan credited new showrunner Seth Hoffman with bringing fresh perspective that allowed the fraught relationship, rooted in Negan's killing of Maggie's husband Glenn, to evolve without ignoring their painful shared history.

Morgan described this as one of the most enjoyable years he has had filming the franchise, highlighting new scenes with Cohan and a fresh dynamic introduced through Jimmi Simpson's character, Dillard. He also touched on how Negan appears more reflective this season, hinted at what a potential Season 4 partnership between Negan and Maggie might look like, and spoke about prioritising family alongside other projects such as the returning Prime Video series Sterling Point.