- Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "TWD" season 11, episode nine, "No Other Way."
Seth Gilliam told Insider that Father Gabriel is "kinda heartbroken" to learn Negan left.
Negan hit the road on Sunday's "The Walking Dead" premiere without bidding farewell to anyone but Maggie (Lauren Cohan).
Believing that no one was in his corner and that his life was in danger the longer he stuck around, Negan decided to make a quiet exit.
But there's at least one person who was torn up by the news.
"I think he's kinda heartbroken," Gilliam told Insider over Zoom when we asked him recently what's going through the usually stoic Father Gabriel's mind when he learned Negan up and left. "I think he feels abandoned."
"I fucking love Seth so much it's ridiculous," Morgan, who was also on the Zoom call, jumped in to say as he smiled wide, thumping his hand across his chest. "Seth and Father Gabriel are Negan's real only fans."
"In all seriousness, I think he did consider Negan somewhat of a friend," Gilliam added of Negan's departure.
"He was a reclamation project over the many years that Negan was in prison and they had their weekly sessions together," Gilliam said, adding that his character did feel like "Negan would be a viable member of this new group."
Now, Gilliam said Father Gabriel is left to ponder: "Why is he gone?"
But Father Gabriel shouldn't worry too much since Morgan told Insider we'll see Negan again on "TWD," teasing that "when he reappears, he's gonna have a mysterious friend with him."
On Sunday's premiere, Gabriel descended deeper into his dark side by killing the Reaper's religious figure, Mancea, a man of God who claimed he still heard the Lord speak to him.
Gabriel was initially taken with Mancea, impressed that he still had conversations with God. But the preacher, who has changed a lot since joining the show's fifth season, couldn't say the same and killed the man.
When we mentioned that Father Gabriel could probably use a friend like Negan right now after confronting and subsequently killing a fellow priest, Gilliam said he doesn't think that death will weigh on Father Gabe's conscience much.
"I'm not sure what really can haunt Father Gabriel. I think he's kind of hardened in a way and also become a little softer because of his newfound strength," he explained.
Follow along with our coverage of "The Walking Dead" all season long here.