A new fan poster for The Walking Dead spinoff The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon takes the titular character all the way from the United States to France. The Walking Dead concluded after 177 episodes with its series finale this past fall. Although the flagship show has ended, the franchise currently has a few main characters slated to appear in three spinoffs. In addition to Daryl Dixon, AMC is planning The Walking Dead: Dead City and a series centered on Rick and Michonne. Audiences will next see Daryl in a very different situation, as the character’s solo adventure takes place in France.
During the Television Critics Association’s 2023 Winter Press Tour, AMC confirmed The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is premiering in the second half of 2023. During the company’s press conference, AMC set a June release date for The Walking Dead: Dead City while also underlining the Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) spinoff would come later this year.
Introduced in the first season of The Walking Dead, Daryl quickly became a fan-favorite survivor of the zombie apocalypse due to his pragmatic and sometimes violent approach to problems. Despite not being part of Robert Kirkman’s original comic books, Daryl is nowadays one of the most recognizable characters of the franchise. So it surprised no one when AMC announced it would take Daryl into new adventures after the main season’s finale.
Daryl Dixon plot: What is it about?
Until recently, we imagined that The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon would take place after the events of the main series. However, Reedus recently warned fans the spinoff would be a “reset” of sorts and that people should tame their expectations. It doesn’t feel good to disappoint Reedus, but the series’ official synopsis gives us plenty of reasons to have high expectations. That’s because The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will take us to Europe, as Daryl washes ashore in France and has to find out who he truly is. That means the spinoff will give us a whole new continent to explore.
In the series, he goes to Paris against his will in search of answers about the zombie outbreak on a global scale, especially in terms of the new variants.
“It’s epic in scale,” Reedus told ComicBook.com. “The tone is much different, the [cinematography is] much different. The lighting’s different. We’re in castles and the storyline has a religious vibe to it. Part of the story is me around a bunch of people speaking French. I’m trying to figure out like, ‘Is this gonna be a fight?'”
He explained his character’s trajectory following The Walking Dead series finale, “It goes horribly wrong, like everything on The Walking Dead. It kind of felt like I was going to see what’s new out in the world, you know what I mean? Everybody was safe, and I was gonna go see what’s out there.”
Reedus also revealed in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live that the show may or may not show the destruction of the Louvre.
Talking about how the upcoming The Walking Dead spinoffs will introduce new settings, Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios at AMC Networks, said:
“This next phase of our beloved Walking Dead franchise promises to engage and enthrall faithful viewers. Fans new and old will love seeing zombies walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, beneath the Eiffel Tower, inside the Louvre, and at dozens more exotic and iconic locations from around the country and world.”
Who’s Involved with The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon?
Besides Reedus, the Daryl Sizon solo series also stars The Essex Serpent‘s Clémence Poésy and Adam Nagaitisand.
As reported by Deadline, Poésy will star as Isabelle, who’s described as a “member of a progressive religious group who joins forces with Daryl on a journey across France and finds herself confronting her dark past in Paris.”
Nagaitis will play Quinn, a “displaced Brit who has become powerful in post-apocalyptic Paris as a black marketeer and the owner of an underground nightclub.”
The series was originally due to star Daryl alongside Melissa McBride’s Carol Peletier, but the actress exited the show in April because relocating to Europe became “logistically untenable” for her.
In an interview with EW, though, Reedus confirmed that Daryl and Carol’s story isn’t over yet, so it’s more than likely we’ll see her again in the future.
“Their journey’s not over. They will meet down the road,” he said. “You can pretty much bet all your money. I read all these people whining about it, and I have to just keep my mouth shut, but there will be a lot of foots in a lot of mouths at some point.”
The spinoff is executive produced by Scott M. Gimple, showrunner David Zabel, Reedus, Greg Nicotero, Angela Kang, Brian Bockrath, and Daniel Percival.
Will Daryl and Rick Meet Again on The New The Walking Dead Show?
The Walking Dead universe has to see survivors-turned-brothers Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon meet again. The series finale left Daryl aware that Rick was out there, something he didn’t initially know because Judith decided to keep it a secret from him. Judith’s The Walking Dead finale secret reveal finally lets Daryl know the whole truth, with Reedus’ character easing Judith’s concerns that he’d leave to search for Rick and not come back as Michonne had at the time. While Daryl’s spinoff takes the character to France and Rick’s spinoff looks to place him in the US, there’s room for the final episode of either show to reunite the characters, as they have to return home to their Walking Dead family.
Daryl Dixon release date: When is it out?
In October 2022, Reedus confirmed on Instagram that he was on set in the French capital, so we know filming is underway.
The six episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is expected to air on AMC sometime in 2023.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon images offer the first look at the epic spin-off
A trio of images from the upcoming Walking Dead spin-off The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon have arrived online, giving the first look at a show that star Norman Reedus promises is going to be “epic”.
