The “Maggie and Negan Take Manhattan” show, officially known as The Walking Dead: Dead City, is almost here. In terms of the universe’s overall timeline, we are jumping into the future by a couple of years as Maggie recruits Negan on a mission to find her kidnapped son, Hershel. We’d only gotten some broad Dead City information, photos, and a couple of small teasers until now. Finally, there is a full length trailer for The Walking Dead: Dead City that takes us into the apocalyptic depths of the Big Apple.
This trailer sets up a completely different tone than what we previously saw in The Walking Dead. There’s certainly a darker (literally and figuratively) and more cinematic scope. This is partially due to the walkers, which continue to mutate in disturbing ways. We do not need walkers leaping from building to building in a single bound nor forming a super sized terror. And we finally begin to understand the situation in Manhattan, which is completely cut off from the US mainland. The citizens who remain there are much like Negan was when we first met him: chaotic and dangerous. We discover that Negan has a connection to NYC via The Croat (Željko Ivanek), a dangerous leader who doesn’t let people off the island once they arrive. This is the man who has Hershel and explains why Maggie needs Negan’s help.
Negan is a wanted man in this area, specifically by lawman Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles), but we aren’t sure why yet. I believe it is one of three things. First, Negan ended up in NYC after wandering off at the end of The Walking Dead and somehow pissed the Croat off really, really badly. Old villain habits die hard with that guy. It’s also plausible that the Croat and Negan crossed paths when the latter was with his new wife, Annie, which somehow led to her death. Or, perhaps Negan has known the Croat for a while. Perhaps this character was once a part of Negan’s Savior collective who seeks revenge. Either way, they obviously have bad blood between them and The Walking Dead: Dead City trailer sets up a gnarly and wild story.
It’s not uncommon for people to take each other captive in this world. But it feels awfully convenient that Hershel is taken from the group. It could simply be because he is young or perhaps it is a more calculated choice by the Croat to lure Negan into his grasp. We will find out the truth when The Walking Dead: Dead City hits AMC and AMC+ on June 18.
