The opening of a new sweet shop may not seem the best time to have an evil villain menace customers with his fearsome weapon.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Negan lookalike from TV show The Walking Dead opens the new 'I Just Wanna Candy' sweet shop in Market Gates shopping centre, Yarmouth.Negan lookalike from The Walking Dead with with Sue Greenwood and Donna Ioannou.Picture: Nick ButcherNegan lookalike from TV show The Walking Dead opens the new 'I Just Wanna Candy' sweet shop in Market Gates shopping centre, Yarmouth.Negan lookalike from The Walking Dead with with Sue Greenwood and Donna Ioannou.Picture: Nick Butcher (Image: Archant � 2017)

But that is exactly what happened in Great Yarmouth as a character from the hit television series The Walking Dead opened I Just Wanna Candy in the Market Gates Shopping Centre with the help of his gruesome baseball bat.

The Negan look-a-like banged on the store’s shutters as they opened for the first time and held his bat called Lucille aloft as he declared: “I hope you got you eating pants on.”

Called UKNegan, the menacing figure then posed with customers for selfies.

The store is owned by Donna Ioannou, who is a fan of The Walking Dead and invited UKNegan to open her shop after meeting him at the Nor-Con convention earlier in the year.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Negan lookalike from TV show The Walking Dead opens the new 'I Just Wanna Candy' sweet shop in Market Gates shopping centre, Yarmouth.Picture: Nick ButcherNegan lookalike from TV show The Walking Dead opens the new 'I Just Wanna Candy' sweet shop in Market Gates shopping centre, Yarmouth.Picture: Nick Butcher (Image: Archant © 2017)

She said she was overwhelmed by the number of people who turned up for the opening.

Mrs Ioannou also has a shop in Regent Street.