It’s tough out there in the post-apocalyptic world, even when it comes to just acting in it, as The Walking Dead has demonstrated for nearly eleven seasons. Hundreds, if not thousands, of moving elements must work together for a high-profile television show like this to create the high-quality work that viewers have come to expect. The devil, of course, is in the details, and few characters on The Walking Dead have been more wicked than Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s villain-turned-protagonist Negan. After Morgan’s cell phone made an anachronistic cameo in the episode “The Rotten Core,” it’s understandable that the actor behind the rehabilitated character received some finger-pointing. When the actor realised what was going on, he quickly recognised the gaffe with a brief and concise statement.
After the latest episode of Season 11 aired on AMC, eagle-eyed Walking Dead fans flocked to the Internet to point out Morgan’s phone’s timeline-breaking appearance, which immediately reminded viewers of one of TV’s most iconic on-screen prop errors: Game of Thrones’ infamous coffee cup. Fans’ screengrabs of Negan’s phone hanging out of his jeans will eternally remind us of that out-of-place drinking vessel, just as fans’ screengrabs of that out-of-place drinking vessel will forever remind us of that out-of-place drinking vessel. On Twitter, he expressed his displeasure with the communication blunder:
If anything, this demonstrates Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s rumoured proclivity for checking his phone during breaks in filming, but fans will undoubtedly wonder why he wasn’t feeling it at the time. It’s not like Negan requires a wallet, so something should’ve been amusing.
Unfortunately for those who noticed the phone right away and had their suspension of disbelief shattered, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s phone was visible during one of the most heartbreaking passages of not only that episode, but the whole season. Not to mention a conversation that will almost certainly have implications as the series moves closer to Negan and Maggie’s impending spinoff, Isle of the Dead.
It happened as Hershel, played by Kien Michael Spiller, was holding Negan at gunpoint after determining that the monster was responsible for twisting Glenn’s brain inside-out. Rather of employing force or panic to defuse the situation, Negan calmly explained everything to the fatherless adolescent. While Negan understood the urge for vengeance and even felt that he deserved a death penalty for Glenn’s killing, he pointed out that pulling the trigger in that situation wouldn’t be the best option, because the loud gunshots would immediately attract Carlson and his soldiers to their shelter. We already know that Jeffrey Dean Morgan wishes he could go back in time to prevent Negan from murdering Glenn, so we can infer he also wants he could go back in time and ask a nearby production assistant to hold his phone for him for a while.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s phone appeared in the world of The Walking Dead, as one of the responses to the actor’s “Oops” post pointed out. There’s a phone-shaped bulge in the front pocket of Negan’s slacks in one Season 7 episode portraying him inside Alexandria that was never digitally fixed. I suppose one could be explained away as an old pack of smokes or… a couple packs of baseball cards? Whatever the situation may be, The Walking Dead’s editing team may be paying a lot more attention to the tiny details of the characters in the remaining episodes.
Season 11 of The Walking Dead will return later this year for the AMC drama’s last eight episodes, with only two episodes remaining before the final midseason break. (Of course, this is only for the flagship; there are numerous spinoffs.) It airs at 8:00 p.m. ET on Sunday nights, followed by Talking Dead. While you wait for the next new episode, learn what other programmes are ending in 2022, such as TWD, and visit our 2022 TV debut schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way.
