Gene Page/AMCNegan broke a lot of hearts — and two heads — at the beginning of this season’s The Walking Dead when he killed two of Rick Grimes’ gang.  The guy is pretty ruthless, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the new villain, doesn’t see it that way.

ABC News spoke to the actor and asked him some fun “What If” scenarios, including what The Walking Dead would have looked like if it had followed Negan — and not Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes. 

“That’s easy: Then he’d be our hero, and no one would be angry at Negan,” Morgan said, grinning. “What a guy! Look at how he keeps everyone alive.”

Imagining what viewers would say about Negan in that scenario, Morgan added, “He’s so funny, and sweet. Love his baseball bat!”

Morgan also was asked which one of The Walking Dead’s villains he’d love to see do battle with his character, and David Morrissey’s The Governor topped his list.

“There’s no one who’s gonna take Negan at this point…But the only guy who kinda comes close is Morrissey’s Governor, so to see them go head-to-head would be an awesome time.”

Morgan played Bruce Wayne’s doomed dad Thomas in a Batman v. Superman flashback — opposite his onscreen wife Lauren Cohan, incidentally Walking Dead‘s Maggie, whose husband Negan (SPOILER ALERT) killed in the season premiere.  

The mid-season finale of The Walking Dead airs Sunday night, December 11 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.