SDCC 2023: The Walking Dead Fills Out Next Phase After Series Finale

The Walking Dead is far from over.

AMC introduced what the next phase of The Walking Dead Universe will look like during its panel at San Diego Comic-Con. This outline included trailers, announcements, and many other highlights.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Renewed for Second Season

Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) will return for a second season of The Walking Dead: Dead City, which is set to air its first season finale on July 23.

The series centers on Maggie and Negan traveling through New York City in search of Maggie’s son Hershel.

The series has done considerably well and has seen increased viewership each week. It was also the biggest season premiere in the three-year history of AMC+.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Trailer and Renewal

Video Credit: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has earned a second season with two months still to go until the series debuts. This Norman Reedus-led spinoff will premiere on Sept. 10 on both AMC and AMC+.

AMC also unveiled a trailer for the upcoming first season along with a 10-minute sneak peak for panel attendees. The sneak peak will drop on July 22 for AMC+ subscribers.

The series will follow Daryl Dixon (Reedus) after he washes ashore in France. The trailer also showcased Genet (Anne Charrier) and Codron (Romain Levi) as they track down Dixon, who is escorting Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi). The trailer reveals that Laurent is the key to “the revival of humanity.”

The trailer also gave a good look at the setting of France and how it has faired during the zombie apocalypse.

Fear the Walking Dead Gets Streaming Home and Release Date for Final Episodes

Video Credit: The Walking Dead

The second half of the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead will air Oct. 22. The final stretch of the show will include six episodes, finishing the original spinoff to The Walking Dead.

AMC also announced that all eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead are now available on AMC+. This is the first time the entire series will be available on AMC+.

Previously, Fear the Walking Dead had been on Hulu, but those rights expired in June. AMC made the announcement via a short retrospective of the first seven seasons.

Rick and Michonne Spinoff Gets Title and Trailer

Video Credit: The Walking Dead

AMC provided an update on a spinoff that will reunite longtime The Walking Dead characters Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), giving the series the name The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. This name references a secret saying both characters shared with their children.

AMC also provided a trailer to go along with the series name. The teaser didn’t reveal much did have Gurira deliver a few lines as Michonne along with clips of both Rick and Michonne from the original series.

The six-episode series claims to be “an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world,” according to the AMC description. The series is set to premiere in 2024 on both AMC and AMC+.

Reactions to the News

Look, I was a huge The Walking Dead fan throughout the 2010s. The take on the zombie apocalypse felt fresh and the characters were real and gritty with no clear good guys and bad guys.

Somewhere along the way, The Walking Dead lost its way and so I stopped tuning in. What used to be fresh became stale as each season felt like much of the same just with a few new characters and new settings.

This rinse-and-repeat approach burnt me out on the series and I have yet to finish it or Fear the Walking Dead. That said, it may be time for me to return.

I’m cautiously optimistic despite the sheer amount of content coming. What makes this different is there are different writers and crews handling different portions of the story. This allows new ideas and directions that may seem unattainable in a long-running series.

I’ve advocated for spinoffs as a means to elongate a story instead of long series. I think the approach The Walking Dead is doing is the way to go because it allows different people to explore different sections of the universe through their own interpretation. This, for me, leads to the freshness we need in a stale franchise.

The key for having these spinoffs is to make them standalones so The Walking Dead Universe becomes like a buffet, allowing fans to watch what the want without having to keep up on other series that don’t appeal to them.

Time will tell how the writer and actor strikes will affect these shows moving forward, but from a displaced fan’s perspective, I think The Walking Dead may be entering a better place.

Source: AMC (via Comic Book)

Featured Image: AMC (via Screen Rant)

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