The Walking Dead may have come to an end, but the franchise still lives – with a couple of spin-offs having aired already, another on the way, and the second half of the final season of Fear the Walking Dead currently rolling out.
Negan and Maggie-centric The Walking Dead: Dead City and Daryl Dixon's Parisian adventure The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon have not long finished in the US, and now fans are gearing themselves up to reunite with Rick and Michonne in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live early next year...
So, if you're a lover of all things apocalypse then stop stumbling around mumbling "braaaaains" and scroll on to out what all of the Walking Dead spin-off series in store.
The Walking Dead: Dead City
Where to watch: Streaming on Prime Video and AMC+ in the US now
Maggie Rhee and Negan Smith, the zombie-infested world's most unlikely duo, take Manhattan in the latest spin-off series The Walking Dead: Dead City. Described as a miniseries, the show consist of six episodes, and sees the survivors try to navigate the apocalypse in New York. The Walking Dead writer and producer Eli Jorné acts as showrunner.
Set a few years on from the events of The Walking Dead season 11, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) enlists the help of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to track down her kidnapped son Hershel (Logan Kim), who she believes has been taken to the Big Apple by one of Negan's former associates The Croat (Željko Ivanek).
Dead City's supporting cast consists of Gaius Charles, Mahina Napoleon, Jonathan Higginbotham, Caleb Reese Paul, Karina Ortiz, Charlie Solis, Aixa Kendrick, Eleanor Reissa, Michael Anthony, Randy Gonzalez, Mahina Napoleon, David Chen, John Wu, Alex Huynh, Alex Borlo, and Trey Santiago-Hudson.
"The city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror," the spin-off's synopsis reads, while Gimple branded it an "epic hate story" during this year's AMC Networks Summit. He continued: "We have two characters who are incredibly distinct from each other."
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
Where to watch: Streaming on Prime Video and AMC+ in the US now
While Maggie and Negan got up to all sorts on the East Coast, Norman Reedus' Daryl Dixon travelled much further afield. In his spin-off series, the former lone wolf finds himself in Marseille, and encounters a whole bunch of the "smart" zombies that featured in The Walking Dead: World Beyond and The Walking Dead season 11.
"Daryl is a fish out of water to start with. If Daryl finds himself with new people, he's a fish out of water. In France, in a country that's going through the apocalypse, [it's] an entirely different thing," Gimple previously said of the series. "He finds himself having to reinvent himself again, having to find himself again, and also, not being with – probably – the only people in the world he's comfortable with."
Like The Walking Dead: Dead City, Daryl Dixon (the series) ran for six episodes and was overseen by ER's David Zabel. Clémence Poésy, Adam Nagaitis, Anne Charrier, Eriq Ebanouey, Laika Blanc Francard, Romain Levi, and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi all star alongside Reedus.
Initially, the show was geared up to follow Daryl and his longtime bestie Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), but writers were forced to rethink its premise after McBride pulled out due to the travel requirements.
"Melissa McBride has given life to one of the most interesting, real, human, and popular characters in The Walking Dead Universe," AMC Networks said at the time. "Unfortunately, she is no longer able to participate in the previously announced spin-off focused on the Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier characters, which will be set and filmed in Europe this summer and premiere next year. Relocating to Europe became logistically untenable for Melissa at this time. We know fans will be disappointed by this news, but The Walking Dead Universe continues to grow and expand in interesting ways and we very much hope to see Carol again in the near future."
McBride will be back for the second season, however, and judging by the new chapter's first teaser, she's going to have a big role going forward, too.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
Release date: February 2024
Andrew Lincoln is set to return to the franchise in Rick's own spin-off series – and he won't be alone. Danai Gurira will also return as Michonne, who left her loved ones behind in Alexandria to go search for Rick back in season 10, in the upcoming limited series.
Rick was initially supposed to front a trilogy of The Walking Dead movies, but they have now been canned, with the creative team's focus shifting towards the untitled limited series. Lincoln and Gurira will both serve as executive producers on the series and are described as being "actively involved" in the creation of this next chapter in their characters' lives. Scott Gimple, who is on board as showrunner, announced the new outing was in development at San Diego Comic-Con 2022.
The Walking Dead season 11 finale teased a little of what's to come, as Rick was seen finding himself on a muddy shore, before discarding his boots, journal, and the phone Michonne discovered in The Walking Dead's 10th season. Later, a helicopter descends upon him, asking him to surrender.
In a different place (and likely at a different time), Michonne is on the hunt for Rick on horseback. The pair, then, appear to be on a collision course in the six-episode series, which has officially wrapped filming and is set to early next year.
Teasing an "epic love story" between its two leads, the yet-to-be-titled drama's logline reads: "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?"
What about Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, and Tales of the Walking Dead?
The Walking Dead: World Beyond has officially concluded after just two seasons, and AMC haven't announced any plans to do another chapter of anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead yet, either. Fear the Walking Dead, however, The Walking Dead's first ever spin-off, has carried on beyond the main show with its eighth and final season.
Season 7 saw the unexpected return of Kim Dickens' Madison Clark, the character that fronted the prequel series before Lennie James' Morgan Jones crossed over from The Walking Dead. Season 8 takes place seven years after the previous finale, in which Madison and Morgan's attempt at rescuing the latter's daughter Mo (Zoey Merchant) from PADRE went seriously sideways. Since then, the survivors have found themselves having to rise above PADRE's oppressive, cynical rule and reignite their belief in forging a better world. Oh, and Troy Otto is back.
Fear the Walking Dead concludes with a two-part finale on November 19 on AMC and AMC+.
Want to explore the entire Walking Dead saga, including spin-offs? Check out our guide on how to watch The Walking Dead if you're wanting to watch/rewatch the main series and its spin-offs in order.
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