In the final episode of the third season of The Walking Dead: Dead City, which premieres this Sunday on AMC and AMC+, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) plan their next move against Dillard (Jimmi Simpson) in the wake his psychotic break, to save the community from his reign of terror. They’ll have to work together and risk it all to both come out alive.

Ahead of the season finale, series showrunner Seth Hoffman spoke with SciFi Vision about the truth about the real Negan, as well as moving the Maggie and Negan dynamic forward without crossing lines that should never be crossed. He also talked about the goals for the season and the big changes, including why the door remains open for Armstrong (Gaius Charles) and other The Walking Dead universe connections, how episode six came about, and how it let the show explore Maggie and Negan in a world where Glenn’s death was not part of their past.

The season finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Sunday on AMC and AMC+.

Read the full transcript below.

SCIFI VISION:   I know there's been a lot of changes, but I really enjoyed it. My first question is that Dillard makes this comment about that when part of when you play a part for too long, it becomes a part of who you are. And to me, that obviously makes me think of Negan and my co host and I on our live stream, we argue all the time about, you know, was the version Negan was [in the flagship series] something that he sort of put on and became in order to survive? Or was it who he always was, and the apocalypse just brought it out? Now, I've always kind of thought the former, but episode six, to me, seems to be pushing the opposite idea, that he was always violent, that kind of thing. So, talk about that, and do you feel that that episode makes it less vague and harder for people to kind of make their own decision now?

SETH HOFFMAN:   Yeah, so I'm going to maybe unsatisfyingly sort of go in the middle of the road. I think sort of both things are true. I think to be the person was, to be the version of Negan that he was in season seven and eight when he was so brutal, I think that version of Negan, he had to, to some extent, play a part, he had to put on a mask and be that person. But I don't think you can play that version if there's not part of that, that's in you that that can come out given the right circumstances. Does that [make sense]?

SCIFI VISION:   No, yeah, no, I get it. I just I wondered, like, [if you wanted] people to go one way or another, then you kind of think that people can stay on either side.

SETH HOFFMAN:   I mean, so, as an English major in college, you know, I'm very much of the opinion that sort of once the work is out there, if you're engaging with with the text and coming up with the theory, like there's no one true answer, I think. You know, either side of that coin can be really validly argued. So, you know, I have my opinion, but I don't know that my opinion is any more or less valid than anyone else who's come through the episodes and can can make their argument for what they believe.

SCIFI VISION:   Okay, I just didn't know if that episode was sort of trying to definitively say that. But it's good to know that it is not.

SETH HOFFMAN:   Yeah.

SCIFI VISION:   Talk about for this season, there've been so many changes that have been made, the tone shifted, you've gotten rid of characters really quick, like the villains, and changed things around. Talk about sort of what your goals were at the beginning of the season, and do you feel that you accomplished everything you set out to do? Or is there anything you still want to do that you didn't get to do?

SETH HOFFMAN:   Yeah, I mean, so the big overarching goal was, how do we move the Maggie Negan relationship forward and make it less about conflict, about something that happened ten years ago, something deeply brutal and awful that happened ten years ago, but something - you know, how do we move it forward? And I think in that respect, you're getting them to where they were in the beginning of Episode One to where they are at the end of Episode Eight. Absolutely, there's an evolution to that relationship, and that that gives us a foundation for a potential season four that is really, I think, rich and interesting. So, I think, that was the big goal of season three. There were also lots of smaller [goals], both thematic, character, franchise; there were lots of little goals. And, you know, I'm really pleased with with how the season turned out.

SCIFI VISION:   So, I want to say that when you say that, if you do get a season four, is it more going to focus still on them building it, and we're not going to go back to like, them fighting constantly because of what happened? Because I know sometimes, I feel like you have to kind of suspend disbelief that Maggie would be okay with what happened, but sometimes that [before] was too much [back and forth]. I don't know, I feel better kind of just to say, you know, “we've moved on.”

SETH HOFFMAN:   Yeah, I mean, we were careful in the scene in Episode Eight, when Negan wants to go give himself up to Dillard, and Maggie stops him and says, you know, a version of “you have me,” you know, we were really careful to make sure that Maggie states like, “I will never forgive you.” But so, you know, we never want to - there is a red line of intimacy between them that can never be crossed. And that's not just romantic intimacy, but sort of friendship intimacy as well. They are never going to be - you know, there's a scene towards the end of Episode Three, where Maggie and Renata (Aimee Garcia) are sort of sitting and drinking a glass of champagne together and kind of like, that it is unlikely that Maggie and Negan are going to have that. You know, they get drunk in a bar together, which is to me a different kind of scene, but like, there's a real red line that we know we're not going to cross. But they both throughout this season have learned to love this community and feel like this community is home. And so. if the two of them are fighting for this community going forward, then they can have a common cause without it being a sort of personal thing that they're fighting for each other in that way.

SCIFI VISION:   That's good. Just don't ever cross that line, and we’ll be fine. [laughs] I know sometimes we're worried, like, are they becoming friends? No. Okay. [laughs] I did want to ask though, since a lot of the storylines from last season did kind of disappear somewhat, if you do come back, are you intending to go back to like the New Babylon storyline, because now that Pearlie Armstrong is gone, we've kind of dropped that story.

SETH HOFFMAN:   Right. I mean, so, you know, there are a lot of ideas percolating for Season Four. And it was absolutely, you know, we closed the door on The Croat (Zeljko Ivanek). We closed the door on The Dama (Lisa Emery). We didn't close the door on Armstrong. So, you know, Armstrong is out there. There are also other communities that exist in The Walking Dead universe that are out there as well. You know, partly because I think I worked on the mothership, partly because I got a sense from fans that they are looking for connections between this spinoff and other aspects of the universe, be it older characters, whatever it is, you know, we are actively sort of looking for ways in which, you know, if there is a Season Four that we can make sure, you know, in the same ways that we invoked Hershel and Glenn and Beth (Emily Kinney) in Season Three, that we can find ways to to bring other characters back into the universe.

SCIFI VISION:   That'd be great. We have about a minute. I just want to ask you really quick. How did you decide to make Episode Six? Like, where did that idea come from? Because that was quite a departure.

SETH HOFFMAN:   Yes, it was a departure. And sort of when I pitched it, I knew that it was going to be controversial. I know that there are some people who love it. I know that there are people who really don't. And, you know, when I initially pitched it to the network, I pitched it as, you know, The Walking Dead is a show that that really utilizes the feeling of dread as one of the emotions that people feel. And this is going to be an episode that is going to be full of dread that Maggie and Negan are going to hook up. So, it's sort of a horror romantic comedy in that way, where you're sort of, “God, I hope this doesn't happen.” But also, you know, I sort of started with the idea of what characters can we bring back to this universe? How can we repopulate this story with beloved Walking Dead characters? And obviously, Beth being Maggie's sister, Beth having such a tragic death, brutal death in season five, is there a way to sort of bring her back? And, you know, it's like, well, she's dead, so, no. But you know, if we did an alternate reality where the zombie apocalypse didn't happen, then she could. And sort of once I flipped that switch, it occurred to me, OK, well, for Maggie and Negan, [it’s] a story where we can see who these characters are, and more importantly, how the two of them can relate in a universe where their introduction wasn't when Negan brutally murdered Maggie's husband, in a season where we are working to sort of move past that event. How could we - you know, I thought it would be interesting and worthwhile to explore a universe where that just wasn't part of their past at all.