The Walking Dead
The main series may have run its course with its ground breaking storytelling and energetic, charismatic cast but that doesn't mean the dreaded zombies in The Walking Dead Universe can't take bites out of stories from other peoples' lives. AMC aired the last show of the long-running flagship's extended 24-episode eleventh season finale titled, "Rest in Peace", on November 20, 2022. The ending scenes from this episode cleared some previous speculations and gave fans and viewers alike some food for thought as it set some things up for three new spinoffs that have been in the making for nearly one year now.
Previous and current series in TWD universe
- The Walking Dead (Main and Flagship series)
- Fear The Walking Dead
- The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
- Tales of the Walking Dead
Through the enthralling ride of The Walking Dead's eleven packed seasons, viewers met with various off shoots of the apocalyptic zombie drama, the first of which was Fear the Walking Dead released in 2015. Subsequently, a couple years after in 2020, The Walking Dead: Word Beyond was released for a two season run following which a different take on the TWD Universe's storytelling took shape in the form of an anthology series titled, Tales of the Walking Dead in August 2022.
Out of these three, FTWD is still running with World Beyond having concluded in 2022. According to Tales' creator Scott.M.Gimple in an interview with Collider, it is seemingly on pause at the moment having run its first season. He said that this is to enable time for more emphasis to be placed on the classic characters this year as the thing with Tales is that it didn't really end on a cliffhanger where there was need to get back to it in a shorter time frame.
As for the only running TWD show on TV right now, Fear the Walking Dead will wrap up its story in the eighth and final season scheduled to begin airing later this year, in a two part season of six episodes each as confirmed by AMC. This could mean that some main characters from the universe might meet their demise, be on hold or somehow make it into the other spinoffs. We'll just have to wait and see what the writers had in mind for the series finale and of course that will extend to availability of resources etc. The first part of season eight is slated to begin airing on the network in May of 2023.
The Walking Dead New shows
Initially Fear the Waking dead's impending conclusion might signal a
closing or slowing down of the popular franchise but according to
executive producer and chief content officer of The Walking Dead
universe, Scott.M.Gimple, it is quite the opposite. In the interview he mentioned.."And then, there are other projects that have been on the burner, as well. We're getting the next phase ready."With these confirmed statements, we can expect that the new shows will have a different approach on the franchise but with core elements of the previous shows as well. These new shows will roll out in this order:
- The Walking Dead: Dead City
- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
- Unnamed (Rick and Michonne) series
The Walking Dead: Dead City
This Negan (Jeffrey Dean-Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) centered spin-off will take place is New York state's Manhattan city that has long been cut off from the mainland. How the duo ended up there is yet to be discovered, hopefully while the series unravels but for sure, they'll need forgiveness and to let bygones be bygones in order to succeed. It is said that the time frame begins around two years after the finale of The Walking Dead. There they will meet other denizens who have made the crumbling city their own, filed with danger, anarchy and infected with the dead.
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| Jeffery Dean-Morgan and Lauren Cohan in "The Walking Dead: Dead City" Photo by Peter Kramer |
A major new character, Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles from Friday Night Lights) will join the new cast amongst a few other new members. According to Gimple, the show will be very focused on Maggie and Negan and just a few friends/foes unlike the ensemble flagship. Eli Jorne is Dead City's show runner and Morgan and Cohan are determined to "honor" the past shows by serving on its executive producer team sighting it will give them something new and interesting to do, though a bit "uncomfortable and surprising" according to them.
The series is said to debut in the second half of June 2023 on AMC and AMC+ and its first season will consist of 6 episodes.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
The titular biker character from the main series somehow finds himself in Europe in the country of France, unknowing to him how he got there. It's a mystery that both audience and character have to solve as the series unfolds posing Daryl in the mist of other groups in unfamiliar territory as he learns new methods of survival. All this while trying to find his way back to his friends in America.
France is broken, resilient but nonetheless still infected with the dead on a new level of zombification! Daryl must forge new connections to survive that complicate his ultimate plan of returning home. Carol (Melissa McBride) had to opt out of the show due to it being logistically untenable for her to relocate to France for filming at this time. Gimple sighted that we can hope to see Carol again in the future and we know for sure she remained back with the group when Daryl, Maggie and Negan went on their own journeys at the end of The Walking Dead.
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| Norman Reedus in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (Image via AMC) |
This show is slated for later this year and from the looks, appears to be sometime in the fall of 2023 with familiar show runner of TWD, Angela Kang and Reedus himself serving on the Executive producer team.
Unnamed spinoff featuring Rick & Michonne main characters
This one is a highly anticipated show due to the fact that both these characters had heavy influence on the main story of the flagship series and as many will know after Rick (Andrew Lincoln) went missing from second half of season 9, Michonne (Danai Gurira) set out to look for him in season 10 having gathered some clues as to his whereabouts from Daryl and other connections she made over the years Rick was missing.
As Per AMC, "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?" Now that's a serious introduction that seems it can't be told in only six episodes so hopefully we can at least expect a second season but it's way too early to say.
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| Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira in The Walking Dead Photo by Jackson Lee Davis| AMC |
This show is suppose is currently wrapping up filming in New Jersey and is supposed to debut sometime in early 2024. Lincoln and Gurira is on the executive producer team as well.
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