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. One of the former is Daryl Dixon, whose spinoff series is currently in production. (You can read more about this show below.)
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 Spinoff Show Takes The Walking Dead Universe to Paris
First, we will start with the one we’ve known about since 2020. A Carol and Daryl Walking Dead spinoff was supposed to happen. 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.) It is set for a “late 2023” release date, so we can expect Daryl’s solo adventure to begin sometime in the Fall or Winter of this year. And it takes place in Paris of all places. It seems that Daryl will “wash ashore” in France with no clue about how he got there or why. All he knows is he wants to go home. That seems awfully close to what fans are expecting with Rick but it takes things up to another level because, well, it is in a different country.
And, in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Norman Reedus affirms that this show will be very different from The Walking Dead. “It’s kind of a reset for me,” Reedus said. “Everything kind of breathes in a romantic way. We have the backdrop of France, we have the Catacombs, the Eiffel Tower… The whole vibe is different.”
We also have these awesome first-look photos. Hopefully more are on the way soon.
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. Norman Reedus himself will also be a producer on the Daryl Dixon series.
There are 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 on June 18 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, the premiere date got a pushback from its intended April 2023.
That’s likely because Fear the Walking Dead is coming to an end after eight seasons and will debut on May 14. As the premiere date draws nearer, we have a teaser revealing that Maggie needs Negan to save her son Herschel. We don’t see Herschel super clearly but there’s obviously a new Herschel thanks to a time jump that takes this universe further in the future. Logan Kim will now portray Herschel.
A longer teaser reveals that, for some reason, Negan is a wanted man all the way up in NYC. Manhattan looks very gnarly and Maggie and Negan are back at each others’ throats again. So much for that terse truce they had prior, right?
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 genuinely 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 to head to NYC. (This isn’t good for poor Annie or their child. Hope they don’t die.) But it sounds like time away could see Negan falling into his old ways.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan shares, “I think time apart probably will make it worse… Negan has an opportunity to kind of fall into some old habits, because it’s all a survival mechanism for him, especially if he’s not with the group. The group kind of tamed him in a lot of ways, and to fit in, he had to stop being who he was. And I think away from this group, he is likely to fall into some old traps and old behaviors… Away from people, he doesn’t do well.” Uh, oh.
It will be a chaotic ride. And according to executive producer Scott 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. And, based on this new photo, he’s looking a little Father Gabriel-ish with that hat.
Another slate of photos give us a glimpse into these 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 Is Coming in 2024
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. Yes, that above poster says 2023 but recent news revealed that it will not debut until 2024, according to Danai Gurira’s interview with Self. 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?
There’s also some casting news starting to trickle our way. Per Deadline, Lucifer alumna Lesley-Ann Brandt will portray Pearl Thorne. Details about that character are currently unknown. But we do know that Andrew and Danai are officially back on set and filming again. The Walking Dead‘s Twitter page gave us two photos, including one of the pair holding hands. It may not seem like much to some people but for us Richonne lovers, it truly means the world.
During a 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.
There are rumblings that some filming could take place in Atlanta, where the original show was filmed, but we will see what happens. Even if this is true, the Alexandria location is a done deal and the walls are now down. Regular people will live in those homes now and maybe (probably) be subject to harrassment.
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.
