The zombie series “The Walking Dead” is over. The grand finale of the eleventh and final season flickered across the screens of the US channel AMC on November 20th. In Germany, the episode “Rest in Peace” is already available on the Disney streaming service. The end of the parent series that started it all in 2010 does not mean the end of the “The Walking Dead” franchise.
In three already officially confirmed spin-off series, stories about “The Walking Dead” main characters are told. There is also the ongoing first spin-off “Fear the Walking Dead” (since 2015) and possibly a sequel to the anthology series “Tales of the Walking Dead”. An overview.
The announced Maggie and Negan offshoot “Dead City” will probably be the first to appear in the first half of 2023. The archenemies, embodied by Lauren Cohan (40) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (56), make it to New York City in the six-episode spin-off. A post-apocalyptic Manhattan is cut off from the outside world in the series due to the zombie outbreak and anarchic conditions prevail there.
“The Walking Dead” Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple (51) previously described “Dead City” as an “epic hate story” because Negan brutally treated Maggie’s husband Glenn (Steven Yeun, 38) with his villain days baseball bat murdered. In the “The Walking Dead” series finale, Negan tries to apologize to Maggie for killing her, but she can’t forgive him. Tensions between the two characters are therefore inevitable for “Dead City”.
In a second spin-off, the focus is on fan favorite Norman Reedus (53). In the short and straightforward series entitled “Daryl Dixon”, Daryl sets off for France. There, an even more dangerous variant of the undead is up to mischief. They can apparently move faster and are characterized by more remaining intelligence. That was hinted at in the final scene of the spin-off series The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020-2021).
Filming on “Daryl Dixon” began in October 2022 in Paris. Series star Reedus announced this himself on Instagram. Daryl, who probably doesn’t speak French, will have to reinvent himself abroad, as “The Walking Dead” boss Gimple announced some time ago.
Daryl’s best friend Carol Peletier was originally supposed to be in the six-part show, but actress Melissa McBride (57) was “logistically unable” to travel to France for the filming. She’s taking a well-deserved break after twelve years in The Walking Dead universe, but she may return in the future.
Daryl Dixon is expected to be the second spin-off to the parent series, following The Walking Dead: Dead City, to be released later this year.
The story of the fan favorite Rick Grimes, embodied by Andrew Lincoln (49), was originally supposed to be told to the end in three movies. Instead, an untitled, six-part spin-off series was announced at Comic-Con 2022. In the show, Michonne (Danai Gurira, 44) is in search of the missing “The Walking Dead” main character Rick Grimes. Actress Gurira left The Walking Dead in season ten, while Lincoln left in season nine.
AMC promises an “epic love story” for the Rick and Michonne spin-off. It is likely that the series will be released in the course of 2023 as the last of the three spin-offs to the main series presented here.
Incidentally, Angela Kang, the showrunner of “The Walking Dead”, already announced that all three spin-offs mentioned will not necessarily follow the end of the parent series directly. Speaking to EW, Kang said, “If the spin-offs go ahead, it’s not going to be exactly where you’d think they’d start.”
The first “The Walking Dead” spin-off, “Fear the Walking Dead”, launched in 2015, shows no signs of fatigue. The seventh season of the offshoot is currently appearing on AMC – and will be broadcast until summer 2023. An eighth season has already been officially ordered.
The first issue of the anthology spin-off, Tales of the Walking Dead, was released on AMC this summer. The future of this series is currently unknown. It was neither renewed for a second season nor canceled by AMC.
“The Walking Dead: World Beyond”, the second offshoot of the parent series, ended as planned after two seasons in 2021. There will be no more new episodes here.
