Fans of the zombie epic have only been introduced to the villain, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, for little more than a few minutes, however, he’s left them with months of terror and the promise that a main character has already perished at the end of his barbed-wire-laced baseball bat, affectionately named Lucille.

In turn, viewers hit out at the series in their droves as the first member of Rick Grimes’ group to be pulverised by the psychopath has been kept as a deliberate mystery, which will be unveiled when the show returns this Autumn.

"One of the side effects that I'm upset about is that people aren't talking about Jeffrey Dean Morgan enough. I think that he is absolutely amazing as Negan," Robert told Uproxx.

"I think that his presence in that finale adds so much to the show. I know people don't like the cliffhanger aspect of it, but I like to think that everything up to that moment was pretty amazing, and people were digging it."