Creatures again walk among us as "Walking Dead' filming resumes Monday in Worcester

WORCESTER — It appears that nothing’s going to rain on the zombie apocalypse parade, not even New England weather.

In fact, when the rain stopped for the Thursday-night film shoot of “The Walking Dead: Dead City” on Main Street, the filmmakers used metal rain curtains that were strategically hung above the buildings to simulate, you guessed it, rain.

While Day One Wednesday of scene shooting for the latest spinoff of AMC’s long-running “The Walking Dead” franchise focused on the adventures of zombie apocalypse survivor and kick-ass mom Maggie Greene Rhee (Lauren Cohan), Day Two Thursday was all about bat-swinging, leather-clad, scene-stealing “Savoir” leader-turned-soul redemptive loner Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).

And on Thursday night, Negan came out swinging, both literally and figuratively. And the crowd went wild.

Spectators behind barriers at a safe distance from batting practice haven’t been this excited about seeing someone swing a bat since Big Papi’s two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th inning in the American League Championship Series against the Yankees in 2004. And you know what happened after that.

But Negan wasn’t reversing “The Curse of the Bambino” or making a pilgrimage to save this human race, never comprehending the race had long gone by. No. He was simply bashing the head of a renegade “walker” who came too close to his personal space.

For Morgan, killing zombies is like a walk in Polar Park and has become his professional means for his bread and butter.

And Morgan, the versatile character actor turned leading man, does it effortlessly.

Dropped off by his luxury shuttle around 6 p.m., the bespectacled actor, with script in hand, warmly greeted extras and crew as he was instructed what to do.

Then, as soon as the director yells “Action!” Morgan becomes Negan. Even on the sidelines, spectators could pick up the change from inviting body language to menacing swagger of an iconic character who carries a spiked Louisville Slugger named Lucille that wasn’t there moments before.

In the scene shot around 7 p.m. Thursday, an armored blue van parks in the middle of Main Street in front of the Burnside Building.

Negan exits from the passenger side of the van, carrying Lucille. As he’s getting out of the car, some of his leather-clad militants wearing gas masks take out a cylinder-shape canister and plop it down in the middle of the street like it’s a sacred religious icon destined to be worshipped.

Negan walks toward the back of the van, loosens up and smacks a “walker” having a bad hair day with his bat right in the kisser.

In another pivotal scene filmed hours later on Main Street, Negan, Lucille and the Croat (Željko Ivanek) — who’s so sadistic and psychotic that he makes Negan look like the WooSox mascot Smiley Ball — jump in the Croat’s Ginsu-accessorized, pimped-up Cadillac.

Finally, another scene filmed on Main Street featured two crouched, shadowy figures scurrying like spiders behind abandoned cars as a “walker” clumsily strolls down Main Street.

And during his break from filming scenes Thursday, Morgan caught the Knicks game in his trailer.

When it comes to the biggest film production to come to Worcester, “Honest Thief” ranks first, followed by “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” and “The Walking Dead: Dead City” come up as a definite third, said Edgar Luna, the city’s business development manager.

“We appreciate the fact that the City of Worcester is selected from many other cities that could have selected,” Luna said. “These movies trigger a positive impact on many other parts of the business industry of the City of Worcester. We’re grateful to be working with them.”

Praising the “Dead City” production for being extremely well organized, Luna said he believes that part of the reason why the film studios select Worcester is because it has everything a film studio could possibly need.

“We have historic buildings. We have state-of-the-art facilities. We have streetscapes. We have everything, really,” Luna said. “As always, we try to facilitate the process for filming in the City of Worcester. We help them with the regulatory process. We try to simplify. And that’s why they keep coming here.”

In addition, Worcester is more manageable than New York City or Boston, Luna said.

“A movie typically comes with anywhere between 15 and 20 trucks. Where are you go to put them in Boston? Can you really close a street in Boston for eight hours? You can’t, Worcester is better suited for that,” Luna said. “The City of Worcester can compete with any city in the United States, including, obviously, New York City and Boston.”

If “The Walking Dead: Dead City” is going to be remembered for one thing in these parts for years to come — other than Negan whacking a zombie a stone's throw away from Mechanics Hall — it’s the transformation of downtown Worcester into postapocalyptic Upper Manhattan.

For a little more than a day, Worcester had its first subway — or at least an entranceway — at Walnut and Main streets. Or was it Broadway and 72nd Street like the temporary signage indicated?

Serving New York-style zombie apocalypse by the slice, Joey B’s Pizzeria popped up where Whiskey on Main stood just hours before.

Main Street was also littered with abandoned baby strollers, broken high chairs, queen-size mattresses, discarded desk furniture, bent tricycles, bordered windows, piles of clothes, scattered leaves, 20-year-old New York tabloids used mainly to cover up storefronts, and shoes missing their respective mates to give Worcester that authentic Armageddon atmosphere.

In fact, the city hasn’t seen this many shoes downtown since Fayva closed on Front Street.

By noontime Friday, all remnants of the zombie apocalypse were packed up and loaded on a truck.

While there was no filming but some serious set prepping happening over the weekend, “The Walking Dead: Dead City” is expected to resume in a big way on Monday morning, once again on Norwich Street.

As of Friday afternoon, several of the doorways of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University facing Norwich Street were boarded up or tagged with graffiti, while the sign for the university was covered to promote “New York Pub” and “Central Park Books.”

Who knows, we might have an awkward and combustible Maggie and Negan reunion of sorts on Monday with Negan barreling down Maggie’s adoptive Worcester street in some new wheels.

Unless something folded behind closed sets, which is possible, the two stars have yet to cross paths in “The Heart of the Commonwealth.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: "Walking Dead: The Dead City' filming resumes Monday in Worcester