Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2 Episode 3.
When it was first announced that The Walking Dead’s Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) would be getting a spin-off, it was understandably shocking. Negan is, after all, best known for whistling his way into Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) life and bashing the skull of Glenn (Steven Yeun), Maggie’s husband. The thought of seeing Negan and Maggie off on their own adventures was simply unfathomable.
However, The Walking Dead: Dead City has managed to pull off the impossible. Now in Season 2, Maggie and Negan find themselves on opposing sides once more, with Negan reluctantly teaming up with the Croat (Željko Ivanek), a former Savior, and the Dama (Lisa Emery), a woman who proved in Episode 2 that she meant business when she killed Victor (Logan Schmucker) with ease and who has a strange, motherly bond with Hershel (Logan Kim), Glenn and Maggie’s teenage son.
Only three episodes into Season 2 of The Walking Dead: Dead City and it’s clear that this is Hershel’s season. Not only is he getting significantly more screen time, but he’s coming into his own as a young man who is learning to protect himself and others. As we see in flashbacks from Episode 3, Hershel is caught between Maggie and the Dama. On the one hand, he’s happy to be with his mom after being separated for so long. On the other, her obsessive rage toward Negan is preventing her from truly connecting with her son. The Dama, conversely, sees Hershel as a key part of rebuilding Manhattan and encourages his interests. During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Logan Kim details what he’s learned from working with Lauren Cohan, how much Negan’s evolved, what Hershel would want to ask Glenn, where he hopes to see Hershel’s storyline go, and more.
COLLIDER: Can you tell me a little bit about what made you want to get into acting?
LOGAN KIM: I grew up in Dallas, Texas. I did dance for eight years, so I got used to the stage. I did all sorts of dance — tap, jazz, contemporary ballet, hip hop — and I really liked it. Then I did theater for a year, and I was like, man, I really want to do acting. My mom was like, “OK, well, you can try it out for a little bit, I guess, to get the passion out of the way, and then you can get a real job or something.” I went to an acting studio for eight months, then I got my first role in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. That made me even more excited about acting and made me want to do more. And now, we’re here!
How familiar were you with the Ghostbusters and Walking Dead franchises?
KIM: I grew up watching Ghostbusters ever since I was like three years old, so I was always a huge fan of it. Now, Walking Dead, I had to wait a little bit. My dad wouldn’t let me watch it until later. I think I walked in my dad’s room, and he was watching the scene of Glenn dying. Which is great foreshadowing, but it was horrifying for me, as a kid, seeing his eyeball pop out of his face. I watched it when I was about 12 years old, and then I started watching all of it and caught up.
Hershel Feels Torn Between Maggie and the Dama in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’

Image via AMC

How much did you know about Hershel’s arc going into [The Walking Dead: Dead City] Season 2? Do they tell you everything up front?
KIM: I was talking with [showrunner] Eli [Jorné], and I just wanted to see where the character was at. He was telling me how he really wanted Hershel to be torn between two different motherly figures and to have that dynamic of, “Whose side should he pick?” He wanted his mom to listen to him, and so how do we get that across? Fun fact, the throwing knives were also added in because I asked for them.
It’s interesting how there are two different ways he could have gone. He’s frustrated with Maggie. He understands she’s upset with Negan, but also, he’s her son, and wants her to focus on him a little bit. That’s obviously why he feels connected to the Dama. Do you personally have a side?
KIM: I think he’s going a little overboard, but that’s just me personally. Ever since he was little, she would always focus on Negan. I understand. But I think that she’s really making an effort, and I think that it’s been such a long time that he’s been manipulated by the Dama that he doesn’t really see it as much as he should.
At the end of Episode 2, the Dama kills Victor. Then we see in Episode 3 how she’s been a mom figure to Hershel. What’s it like working with Lisa [Emery]?
KIM: Oh, Lisa’s so good, and she’s such a sweet lady. I love her.

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That’s usually how it is. I feel like the people who play villains are really sweet.
KIM: Oh, man, they got a gift or something. But I just remember doing scenes with Lisa, and we’d just be talking, and she’d be so sweet, and then we start the scene, and instantly, it’s like an ominous presence just entered the room. It helps with the acting because I was really feeling those emotions.
Going off that, what’s something Jeffrey [Dean Morgan] and Lauren [Cohan] have either told you or you learned from watching them act and have picked up on for yourself?
KIM: Lauren’s kind of just — our little dynamic of being mother and son, it’s been really fun to work on that and just different scenes. I remember we were sitting in our apartment complex just going over these scenes, and I got to really see her process and her breakdown. And Jeffrey, dude, he’s so funny. But I remember the day I was going to shoot him with the gun. I just saw him there, and man, he knows how to crack a joke.
‘Dead City’s Logan Kim Says Negan Is the Cause of Maggie and Hershel’s Divide

Image via AMC

What do you think Hershel’s opinion of Negan is? Hershel kind of alludes to the fact that he’s obviously mad at what Negan did, but he can’t connect as much because he wasn’t there. Do you think he’d be willing to welcome Negan into his life in any way?
KIM: Well… [Laughs] I think that Hershel’s view on Negan is the only way to get Maggie to really let go completely is to let Negan go from life. Basically, he just wants to eliminate the cause of everything. Then he’ll have a happy life with his mother. I think he has a lot of malice towards Negan and a lot of hate and just wants to deal with him.
Were you surprised at how much, even going back to The Walking Dead, Negan’s evolved?
KIM: Definitely, I mean, we opened up to him, and he started killing the main cast, so you already hate him. Then you slowly, weirdly start to love him because he’s so charismatic. You can really see him trying to be a better person as the seasons go on. Especially in this series, he doesn’t want to do Hershel harm or Ginny harm. He just wants to be a better man than he used to be, and so I think that’s really important.
What do you hope is passed down to Hershel that you can explore from Glenn’s character?
KIM: Hopefully, he gets to drive a Mustang. I just love how hilarious Steven Yeun played Glenn and how funny he was. I think that would be really great because right now, honestly, Hershel is not much of a comedic guy. Maybe, eventually, if he gets out of that little shell, he’ll start looking at comedy. We’ll see.
Season 3 is just Hershel one-liners the whole season.
KIM: [Laughs] Stand-up comedy in front of walkers or something.
Logan Kim Reveals What He Wants Hershel To Ask Glenn

Image via AMC

If Hershel could ask Glenn something, what would he want to know?
KIM: That’s a really good question. I think he’d want to know how his parents met. I don’t know if Maggie actually told him that story. I think that it would be an interesting kind of thing to ask him and maybe just see where he came from, know the roots of his father a little bit more, because he really doesn’t know much except for what his mom told him. I think that’d be an interesting thing to hear about.
Have you talked to Steven at all?
KIM: Not yet. I would love to, though, because he’s such a cool guy. Maybe I’ll meet him at a Walking Dead fest or something, but that would be really cool.
You have a lot ahead of you. You’re an up-and-coming actor. What are some projects that you’d love to be a part of?
KIM: I want to do a John Wick-esque kind of thing. I think I would really enjoy doing that. Maybe a war movie? I always really loved those movies growing up. I think that would definitely be something I want to do at some point.
You were talking about Lauren and observing her process. Do you have a process when you get a script? Walk me through it!
KIM: I’ll get something. I’ll print it out. I’ll highlight it because highlighting somehow just makes it easier to memorize. I’ll read it. I’ll set a timer on my phone just initially, and then I’ll read it through, and then I’ll read it backwards. Then I’ll just read the line backwards, and then I’ll keep going up from there and going back down to it. I’ll go back and forth until I have it in my brain. Once I sleep on it, I usually have it.
I was not expecting it backwards!
KIM: I don’t know why it works. My mom told me about that, and it just kind of stuck.
I know you probably can’t tease a lot about the rest of the season, but where do you hope Hershel goes?
KIM: I hope that Hershel reconciles with his mother a little bit and really kind of comes to terms with her and accepts her. I hope they just have a better relationship, honestly.