Negan begins The Walking Dead's 10th season in "work release"

Entertainment Weekly

“He’s out there," says showrunner Angela Kang. “He’s doing work, but it is still as a prisoner. It’s more like he’s on work release.” She adds: “I think Negan starts the season in a really interesting place. We saw at the end of last season that he had earned a little bit of trust. So, when we start off this year, we’ll see that he’s almost a part of the future that is kind of like what Carl had envisioned.”