'The Walking Dead' Star Khary Payton Talks Ezekiel Working With Negan in Latest Episode (Exclusive)

The Walking Dead has three episodes remaining before the show comes to an end. And as the group continues its battle against the Commonwealth, former enemies have to come together to get out of a tough situation. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Khary Payton talked about how his character, Ezekiel, has to team up with his former foe Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to escape the imprisonment of the Commonwealth. 

"I feel like it is a situation where, if you're that deep in a hole and you got to claw your way out, you use whatever tools are at your disposal," Payton exclusively told PopCulture. "And I think despite how he may feel, Ezekiel knows that Negan's an important tool to dig out of this hole. And so he reluctantly puts his feelings aside, and for the greater good to help a lot of people, he's like, 'You know what? Let's work with this guy.' Keep your enemies close, like they say. And I was just excited to work with Jeff. We'd known each other for a long time but never worked together specifically on set. So I thought it was going to be a good time working with Jeff, and I think it ended up coming out pretty good."

Ezekiel and Negan were captured by officers of the Commonwealth after the death of Sebastian Milton (Teo Rapp-Olson), the son of governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins). The duo doesn't make a move to escape in the episode but discovers that Alexandria has been turned into Outpost 22 which has now been taken over by the Commonwealth. 

Because Ezekiel and Negan have been bitter rivals, Payton never got the chance to work closely with Morgan as much as he would have liked. "We work well together," Payton said. "We got a nice yin and yang going. We bonded over our kids, and football and we both like to talk a little s— on set, which on a cold, wet day, it helps to keep the morale up. So yeah, I genuinely like Jeff, and I like the way that we work together, and I think it ended up making for some cool stuff." Payton has been on The Walking Dead since 2016. He can be seen in new episodes which air on AMC on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes also stream on AMC+ one week before it airs on AMC.