Some details about the The Walking Dead Daryl spinoff show starring Norman Reedus were revealed by TWD Universe Chief Content Officer Scott Gimple. The spinoff, which was first announced back in September 2020, would feature Reedus’s Daryl Dixon and Melissa McBride’s Carol Peletier taking a zombie apocalypse road trip.
Following the eleventh and final season of The Walking Dead, with the final eight episodes premiering in October, the Daryl series will instead follow him on an overseas mission. The untitled series will be relocating to France. Melissa McBride announced in April she would not be part of the show due to the location being “logistically untenable.”
Angela Kang, who would serve as showrunner on the Carol and Daryl spinoff, also exited the The Walking Dead spinoff after AMC confirmed McBride would not be on the show. The Daryl series is scheduled to start shooting sometime in the remainder of this year under ER’s David Zabel as showrunner. The Daryl show is set to premier in 2023 on AMC and AMC+.
“The Daryl spinoff takes place in France,” Gimple announced. He also confirmed there will be a connection to the variant walkers introduced in the post-credits epilogue of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Gimple revealed, “The World Beyond coda is a bit of a tease of some of the things Daryl is going to face.”
“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 added. “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.”
AMC Networks offered this statement regarding Melissa McBride:
“Melissa McBride has given life to one of the most interesting, real, human and popular characters in The Walking Dead Universe. 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,” AMC Networks said in a statement. “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.”
The Daryl Dixon series with Norman Reedus isn’t the only Walking Dead spinoff planned. AMC Studios is currently filming Isle of the Dead which follows Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) trying to survive a post-apocalyptic New York cut-off from the rest of the country. It was recently announced at the San Diego Comic-Con that Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira will be reuniting in a Rick Grimes and Michonne series.
The Walking Dead: The Last Episodes premiere Sunday, October 2 on AMC and AMC+. The show that started it all may be ending there are plenty more action with our favorite zombie apocalypse survivors.
