The Walking Dead is officially over after eleven seasons and it has been quite the ride. But, as we know, the end of the flagship series that’s been in fans’ hearts for over a decade doesn’t mean this world is done. The show already has had three spinoff series, Fear the Walking Dead, Tales of the Walking Dead, and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, on TV. That number is continuing to grow with shows to look forward to in the nearby future. Some of them include key characters we’ve known and loved (or loved to hate) for seasons as well as new faces to meet. And, this roster of Walking Dead spinoffs will continue to expand this world in interesting ways. So, what’s coming next? Let’s dig into what we know so far.
Jump to: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon // The Walking Dead: Dead City // Rick and Michonne Series
The Daryl Dixon Show Takes Paris
First, we will start with the one we’ve known about since 2020. A Carol and Daryl Walking Dead spinoff was supposed to begin production after the flagship show with a 2023 release date. But surprisingly, Variety confirmed that Melissa McBride, who plays Carol, left the show. So now we have The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, the show starring, well, Daryl Dixon. (It is likely that this show will be known simply as Daryl Dixon.) And it takes place in Paris of all places. Now that the flagship show is done, we are getting more spinoff information, including these awesome first-look photos.
Daryl is a character who doesn’t even have a comic book counterpart. However, he’s grown to have just as much of a fandom, if not more, than Rick Grimes himself. A show centering on him indeed makes a lot of sense. In The Walking Dead’s final episode, Judith finally tells Daryl that Michonne is looking for Rick. It takes him a year, but after talking with Maggie about “seeing what’s out there,” he decides to leave his found family. He bids farewell to everyone with a special goodbye for his best friend Carol and takes off on his motorbike.
The Daryl spinoff will bring on ER’s David Zabel as the showrunner. It will be Zabel’s first time stepping into The Walking Dead‘s universe. But he will have the guidance of Angela Kang, who will be the show’s executive producer. As we know, she’s been helming the flagship series since season nine. There are also a couple of interesting new characters in the mix, according to Variety. Clémence Poésy will join the cast as Isabelle, a “member of a progressive religious group who joins forces with Daryl on a journey across France and finds herself confronting her dark past in Paris.” There’s also Adam Nagaitis who will portray Quinn, a “displaced Brit who has become powerful in post-apocalyptic Paris as a black marketeer and the owner of the Demimonde, a sexy underground nightclub.” Now he sounds super interesting.
Why in the world would Daryl be in France if he’s looking for Rick? And how the hell is he going to get there? We will get those answers next year. This will def rank high as one of the must-see Walking Dead spinoffs.
The Negan and Maggie Spinoff The Walking Dead: Dead City Heads to New York
My, how things change. If you told any fan that Maggie and Negan would have their own six-episode adventure together, they would have thought you were a liar. But it is true. The Walking Dead: Dead City is coming in April 2023 with Eli Journé, an executive producer and writer on The Walking Dead, as the showrunner for. As you can see, the title went through a change from the previous Isle of the Dead title that AMC had been using since around March 2022. And, as the date draws nearer, we have our first look at the series.
This is very interesting for all the obvious reasons. There’s the ever-looming reality that Maggie will never forgive Negan because, well, she said so in The Walking Dead‘s finale. He geniunely and tearfully apologized to her about taking Glenn away from her family. She told him that while he and his wife earned their place in the community, she could never truly forgive him. It makes sense. He did murder her husband. In brutal fashion. Right in front of her eyes.
Negan goes away from the community in the end, presumably to get Annie from Alexandria and go off on their own. But, we know that he will cross paths with Maggie again in New York City for some currently unknown reason. (This isn’t good for poor Annie nor their child. Hope they don’t die.)
It will be a chaotic ride, according to Gimple, that includes warring factions, ziplines to get from building to building, and general mayhem. Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, reveals more about what the world is like in Manhattan 12 years after the apocalypse began. (This also answers the ever-present timeline question.)
“It’s going to take place on the island of Manhattan, which was left to the walkers 12 years ago when they overran Manhattan. The government decided to blow all the bridges and tunnels and just leave the island to the walkers. And it’s now 12 years later,” confirms McDermott. “There’s a million-walker herd that’s sort of dominating the streets of Manhattan… Maggie and Negan have to journey onto the island, where there’s a small civilian [faction] that lives in Manhattan … above the 10th floor of all the buildings, and they zipline back and forth above the streets.”
This could possibly lead to them finding out answers about Rick, even though it doesn’t appear they are going there specifically to look for him. It seems Rick could be not too far away in Philadelphia (maybe?) or another Northern US city with the CRM. And we know that Michonne left towards that area to look for Rick back in season 10. So perhaps they will cross paths with her in some way. It would be a great way to gear things up for the Rick and Michonne show. We shall see. Considering this show has a name and an April 2023 release date, we can assume it will come out before the Daryl series.
Gaius Charles will also join Lauren Cohen and Jeffery Dean Morgan as a lead on the show. According to Deadline:
Charles will play Perlie Armstrong. He’s confident, ruthless, and unyielding in the pursuit of what he believes is justice, with the force of his will and his menace. Perlie enjoys his work and intersperses humor with the terror he incites. This is a family man, devoted to building a safe world for his wife and daughters. His journey unearths a loss he is haunted by. He has patience and resilience and walks rather than runs from his mistakes.
An interesting sounding character, to be sure.
A recent slate of photos give us a glimpse into Maggie, Negan, and Perlie’s adventures in the city. Nice to see that Maggie still wants to possibly murder Negan.
Morgan previously revealed that the show would film near his family ranch in New York. They are done with filming and, before we know it, Dead City will be on our TVs.
A Rick and Michonne Walking Dead Spinoff Series
The Walking Dead‘s final panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 gave us the biggest news of all. There will be a Rick and Michonne series to tell their epic story. And, it is coming in 2023. You can read more about the series here but this breakdown will also get you excited:
This series presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?
During the Walking Dead preview, Gimple warns us that we will see “Red Machete Rick” again. Remember him? He was the one with the brown murder jacket who was a lot unhinged around seasons five and six. This is probably not a good thing but if anyone can bring him back to normal, it is Michonne. We get a glimpse of Rick in The Walking Dead‘s final episode and he looks like hell. But that scene is from the past so he’s presumably in an even worse state at this point. And, there’s also Michonne with her new gear, braving the world alone. Love to see it. Will their show end with an Alexandria reunion? We hope so.
So there you have it. A lot is happening in The Walking Dead universe and there will surely be more details about these spinoffs as well as new announcements. The show that won hearts is bowing out but there’s plenty left to explore in the land of the dead, so let’s keep walking right towards these spinoffs.
Originally published on April 7, 2022.
