In the original comic book form of The Walking Dead, the Governor is quite the vicious villain. In his anticipated arrival to the AMC series, we wondered if he would be the same way, but it looks like the TV version is going to be even more complex. Watch out for spoilers.
Robert Kirkman wrote the Governor as a violent, destructive, and self-centered man in his comics, loosely using the guise as leader of Woodbury to excuse his actions. Everyone still seems afraid of him, though, especially considering his arena death matches amongst Woodbury citizens.
In Glen Mazzara’s adaptation of The Walking Dead on AMC, they chose to play the Governor a little bit differently. While definitely a sinister character, the Governor portrays himself to be a benevolent, peacekeeping leader. He has certainly treated Michonne and Andrea much better than he does other strangers in the comics.
Although he does want them to lead him to the others, so he’s salvaging them for now.
Mazzara tells the Los Angeles Times that they wanted to bring more layers to the Governor in the show. So they brought in the charming and talented David Morrissey.
“We didn’t want just an archvillain, someone who’s just going to be a mustache-twirling sadist. David’s a very versatile accomplished actor, he’s a total gentleman. What was great was he really was very open to our approach to the character. He was interested in playing this character with some humanity but not shying away from playing a character that develops into a brutal dictator eventually.”
We saw a few hints of the Governor’s brutal side in Sunday’s episode – from slaughtering an entire camp of military men to his tanks full of human and zombie heads – and we can only expect to see more later on. Maybe he will live up to his original comic form, or maybe he’ll turn out even worse.
As showrunner, Mazzara also hints that the Governor should be around for quite awhile.
“The Governor in our show has an arc, hopefully a long-term arc. He begins in one place and goes through, like any thought-out character, ups and downs and developments and back steps and all of that.”
What we’re currently seeing on the show appears to be the beginning stages of an evil tyrant taking form.
“Our Governor is not just a full formed villain who is hiding that fact. He is more complicated than that. There are things that he’ll eventually do that he may not do immediately; there are things that he may do immediately that he realizes don’t work.”
David Morrissey is in it for the long haul in terms of playing the Governor, however long that may be on the show. He’s invested in the integrity of the character as well as the series.
“What’s important to understand in this character, he sees himself on a historical stage. That’s really how we look at that character. David’s interested in that. Sometimes you try to cast someone, you might feel they’re not fully committed to playing a villain. He’s fully committed to playing a layered complex character.”
When speaking about his character, Morrissey has shown this dedication to the Governor and his evolution.
“He does need to have a complexity. If he was just an out and out baddie, I think you would hit a ceiling creatively very quickly. I think giving him these levels and colors and fears, hopefully that will give him more longevity.”
With the drama and conflict expected with the Governor on screen, we can only hope for longevity. We’re interested to see just how dark The Walking Dead execs are willing to let him go.