While he doesn't have a huge role in it, Matthew Lillard can currently boast being part of the biggest movie of the weekend, the critically eviscerated sequel that fans can’t get enough of, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. The goal is for him get a more worthwhile amount of screen time in a hypothetical third feature, and I sincerely hope it happens, since he’s easily the most watchable human in either movie. As it happens, Lillard was nearly one of the most watchable parts of an entirely different mega-popular horror franchise, The Walking Dead.
Personally, I think it’s fun to imagine a world where the Scream vet (and upcoming Scream 7 co-star) portrayed the role of Carl Grimes, son of Andrew Lincoln’s Rick, but I know that doesn’t make any sense. In reality, Lillard very temporarily grasped the role of the show’s skull-demolishing antagonist Negan, at a point when Jeffrey Dean Morgan seemed like he might not jump on. Speaking to Comic Book Resources about FNAF 2, Lillard shared the following:
I’ve auditioned for things. I’ve talked about this a couple of times, but The Walking Dead. I auditioned for that four times. Four times. The showunner and I were doing Hall H down in San Diego [Comic-Con], and I was doing Twin Peaks, and Walking Dead was right behind us. And he was like, ‘I love your work. You were so close.'
The majority of TV roles do not require casting directors to call in household celebs for four auditions, but Negan was certainly an exception to many rules of the small screen, and his arrival helped The Walking Dead both reach its peak audience, while also being the cause for the viewership to cascade downward. Not that it was Jeffrey Dean Morgan in and of himself that turned fans away, but rather the character's brutally unforgivable actions upon his arrival in Season 6, which then carried into the Season 7 premiere.
So how close did it get? Well, if Jeffrey Dean Morgan had dropped his phone in a toilet or had an untimely cold, Walking Dead fans might have had an entirely different reaction to the villain's game-changing introduction. Lillard continued, saying:
He said, ‘You were actually Negan for five minutes because Jeffrey Dean Morgan had the offer. He wasn’t responding and the team clocked it, and they made the move to go to you.’
Wowzers and then some. To think that Matthew Lillard could have gone from Twin Peaks' enigmatic return season to playing one of the most celebrated comic book villains of the modern era. This is totally one of those points in life where I wish Sliding Doors-esque situations where possible, and I could watch a parallel universe's version of The Walking Dead where the SLC Punk vet is the one filling out Negan's leather jacket while swinging his beloved bat Lucille down on character's busted skulls. Also in that alt-dimension, Rick Grimes is played by fellow Scream killer Skeet Ulrich.
Lillard doesn't think he would have shared the same story arc as JDM's Negan, given their physical differences and performance types, and I wonder if things would have skewed closer to the comics in that respect. The Walking Dead has long treated Negan as something of an unkillable anti-hero, with two seasons so far of the spinoff Dead City focused on his continued survival. That said, I think it wouldn't have been long before Lillard's version also attained anti-hero status, give how affable the actor is.
Also, for what it's worth, Lillard gave Morgan props, saying "He's great - different and masculine." In that other reality, I wonder if Lillard would have bulked up to fill out that leather jacket that much more snugly.
Without any zombies around to massacre, the actor can be found in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, currently playing in theaters, with upcoming arcs in one of my most anticipated upcoming horror TV series, Mike Flanagan's Carrie and the second season of Daredevil: Born Again. Here's hoping he lands a DCU role with his Scooby-Doo director James Gunn.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
