By the time AMC aired the "Tell It to the Frogs" episode of The Walking Dead TV show in 2010, Image Comics had published 78 issues of Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead comic book -- and not a single issue featured brothers Merle and Daryl Dixon. Played by Michael Rooker and Norman Reedus, the Dixon brothers were created by series developer and then-showrunner Frank Darabont for AMC's adaptation of the comic books. Daryl would go on to become one of the television show's most popular characters -- and will lead his already-renewed solo spin-off, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, premiering this fall -- so why wasn't Daryl in the comics?

"While I had a hand in creating Daryl and Merle, it was very much a team effort involving other season one writers Jack LoGiudice and Charles H. Eglee, as well as Frank Darabont (who originated and named them)," Kirkman wrote of the Dixon duo in the letters page in The Walking Dead Deluxe #67. "A cool thing in TV is that the actors also have a huge hand in who their characters become just in the way they interpret lines. Surprising line reads inspire the writers to write the characters completely differently as the series progresses. So, I'd also credit Michael Rooker and Norman Reedus with a lot of what makes those characters work."

Reedus initially auditioned for the Merle role. (While casting directors "loved" the Boondock Saints actor, he "wasn't a perfect fit" for the racist, redneck drug dealer -- so Darabont created Daryl for Reedus.)

Kirkman added that there were "logistical issues" that barred bringing TV show characters into the comics, but did not specify what those might be. "I would never have done it because it would feel wrong to bring the work of so many other people into the comic," Kirkman explained. "I never wanted the show to change the comic, since the comic is what made the show possible, and I worried it could turn into a snake eating its own tail."

The Walking Dead issue #98, published in 2012, introduced Dwight, a disfigured member of the Saviors who wielded TV Daryl's weapon of choice: a crossbow. "All that said," Kirkman wrote, "doing fun things like making comic readers think Dwight might be Daryl when introducing him? That kind of stuff is fun."

During a 2018 panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Kirkman remarked that there were "Norman Reedus likeness rights" that barred Daryl Dixon from the comic book. "I love the fact that there is something, if you read the comics, there would be an absence of Daryl and I feel like that adds to the mystery of the comic and makes it more appealing," Kirkman said at the time.

The Walking Dead Deluxe #68 is on stands August 2nd from Skybound and Image Comics.

"Hope is not lost." That's the tagline for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which transports the eponymous American (Norman Reedus) overseas to post-apocalyptic France. But what does it mean? The show's San Diego Comic-Con trailer revealed that French nun Isabelle (Cl?mence Po?sy) recruits the marooned Daryl, tasking him with delivering 11-year-old boy Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi)... somewhere, for mysterious reasons. "He's ready," Isabelle tells Daryl, "to lead the revival of humanity." Could Laurent be humanity's hope for a cure? Could Daryl's mission have anything to do with the French lab that might have been ground zero of the zombie apocalypse over on The Walking Dead: World Beyond?

Those are questions raised by a new teaser, which ominously states "there is hope" over shadowy images of Daryl, Isabelle, and Laurent. Watch it below.

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Laurent is described as "an 11-year-old boy born just as the hungry ones appeared, he grew up in an abbey protected by nuns, shielded from the violence of the outside world. He seems insightful and wise beyond his years." Along with Sylvie (Laika Blanc Francard), the boy is in the care of Isabelle, described as: "A smart, headstrong nun capable of protecting herself and the people she loves, Isabelle escaped to the countryside when the hungry ones arrived."

"The hungry ones" are, of course, the flesh-eating undead who have been roaming the Earth since the outbreak of a mysterious virus in 2010. The French lab that appeared in a coda ending World Beyond was referenced back in the very first season of The Walking Dead, where CDC virologist Dr. Edwin Jenner (Noah Emerich) remarked that the French were "the last ones to hold out" at the onset of the walker apocalypse, staying in their labs "until the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

It was inside that lab that a French woman (Carey Van Driest), revealed to be part of the "Violet" team, downloaded decade-old Wildfire transmissions broadcast by Jenner from Atlanta. When a French man with a gun (Oryan Landa) demands she tell him the whereabouts of the "Primrose" team, she says: "They weren't here when it happened. When you all did what you did."

What that is remains a mystery, but graffiti reading Les morts sont nes icl -- "the dead are born here" -- hints at a potentially man-made origin for the variant cohorts that are faster, stronger, and smarter than regular walkers. "End this? You started this. All the teams," the man said. "Then you made it worse."

But hope is not lost. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres Sunday, September 10th on AMC and AMC+.

The Walking Dead: Dead City aired its "Doma Smo" season finale on July 23rd, and now you can pre-order the complete first season on Blu-ray. AMC's RLJ Entertainment will release the six-episode season as a two-disc set on Tuesday, September 12th. (The complete first season is also available to own now on digital download.) As a bonus feature, the disc version includes The Walking Dead: Dead City Live From WonderCon, a 35-minute special with showrunner Eli Jorn? and series stars Lauren Cohan (Maggie Rhee) and Gaius Charles (Perlie Armstrong) discussing the Walking Dead spin-off.

See the newly revealed box art below.

The official description: "Years have passed since we last saw Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and the old enemies must now form a tenuous alliance in order to carry out a dangerous mission. Maggie and Negan travel to a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland. There they discover a crumbling city, filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York their own -- a world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror. But as the pair moves deeper into the gritty depths of the walker-infested city, it becomes apparent that the traumas of their tumultuous past may prove just as great a threat as the dangers of the present."

The series also stars Gaius Charles (Grey's Anatomy) as New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong, who doggedly pursues a fugitive Negan; Logan Kim (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) as Maggie's teen son, Hershel; Mahina Napoleon (NCIS: Hawai'i), Negan's unspeaking ward Ginny; Karina Ortiz (Orange Is the New Black), Jonathan Higginbotham (The Blacklist), and Michael Anthony (The Game) as native New Yorkers Amaia, Tommaso, and Luther; ?eljko Ivanek (Damages) as The Croat; and Lisa Emery (Ozark) as The Dama.

Dead City debuted on June 18th as the #1 season premiere in the history of AMC+ in terms of viewership across all new and returning series -- including The Walking Dead -- with viewership on the AMC cable channel and streaming service AMC+ growing with each successive week to date, according to the network. (Watch The Walking Dead: Dead City series premiere online for free here.)

AMC announced at San Diego Comic-Con this week that The Walking Dead: Dead City has been renewed for season 2 alongside The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

[This story contains spoilers about The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 6, "Doma Smo."] "Maybe some part of you always wanted it to end this way." With those words, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) animosity reaches its climax on The Walking Dead: Dead City. In Sunday's "Doma Smo" season finale, the two end up at each other's throats -- literally! -- after Negan figures out that Maggie brought him to New York under false pretenses. As it turns out, the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) kidnapped her son Hershel (Logan Kim) so Maggie would track down her former foe and bring him "home" to the new Sanctuary.

"We could have done it. We could have saved Hershel. Because you and I together, we made one hell of a badass team," Negan tells Maggie when their truce ends in a fight. "But you know that, don't you? Maybe some part of you always wanted it to end this way. The fact is, Maggie, it doesn't matter what excuses I give you or how many apologies I offer, you can't get over it. And you shouldn't."

Maggie can't get over Negan killing her husband Glenn (Steven Yeun), but she hesitates to turn him over to be tortured to death. In the end, Negan goes through with the trade, and Maggie and Hershel are reunited. But the homecoming isn't a happy one. Hershel confronts Maggie, blaming the rift between them on her obsessive desire for revenge on Negan.

"I felt like the world kept taking, and kept taking, and I think at some point, I thought that if I could just fight hard enough, I'd be able to get it back. A little piece of it, at least," Maggie confesses. "But it doesn't work that way, because you just end up losing what you got. And I don't want to keep doing that anymore. I don't know how, but this thing with Negan... I'm gonna finish it. So that I can just let it go."

Back in Manhattan, the Croat doesn't want to kill Negan. Instead, he turns his idolized "brother" over to the Dama (Lisa Emery), who wants Negan to lead the island in the inevitable "clash of civilizations" over its natural resources: the dead bodies that the Croat's Sanctuary turns into methane. New York's tribes will be at war with the New Babylon Federation, and she needs a showman to unite the settlements under one rule. "Someone with confidence, fearlessness, charisma. That special, shall we say, political talent. For what is politics if not performance?" Someone like Negan.

Deducing that Negan feels remorseful for destroying Hershel's family, the Dama coerces Negan's compliance -- by presenting him with Hershel's toe. If Negan doesn't do as the Dama commands, she'll harm Hershel and Maggie.

"I think it's the fight we've all been waiting for," series creator and showrunner Eli Jorn? says on AMC+'s The Walking Dead: Dead City Episode Insider. "When Negan has his knife to Maggie's throat, and he drops it, and he steps back, I think that action itself is essentially starting to say to her, 'This is as it should be.' I think he knows that he has to take responsibility. And beyond that, I think there's something in him that fears what he is."

When Maggie exchanges Negan's life for Hershel's, she thinks she's sending him to his death.

"Maggie has tricked Negan. The Croat demanded that Maggie bring Negan to her. Only then she would get her son back. And she has the knife to his throat, and I think there's just a moment where she's realizing, 'Of course I want my son back, but also, how do I feel about turning over this person that I've come to see is maybe not exactly the person I thought he was?'" Jorn? explained. "He helps her put her family back together, and in turn, he will suffer for what he's done."

It's Hershel who helps Maggie realize that her hate for Negan could cost her what she doesn't want to lose: her son.

"Hershel kind of explodes at his mom and calls out the fact that, 'Were you really here for me, or were you really here to punish Negan?' And she's realizing that things are not as black and white as she once thought they were," Jorn? said. "And she has to wonder if what she's done to Negan is right and if it's gonna help any of them heal at all. That's what's going through her mind in that moment - she's kind of wrestling with what she's done to him."

Dead City's first season ends with a split-screen image of Maggie and Negan "sharing a face," which is "the larger metaphor for what's happened in this season," Jorn? explained. "[Which] is these two people who started out so far apart, and in coming together, they've started to understand one another, and they're starting to see that, there is this way out. It's probably a long way off, but it has to be through each other."

The Walking Dead: Dead City has been renewed and will return for a second season on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

In Croatian, "Doma Smo" means "we are home." But the "Doma Smo" season finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City is anything but a homecoming for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). After discovering that the runaway Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) is on Manhattan Island, Negan entrusts New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) with escorting her back to The Bricks. "I can't protect you and help Maggie. There was a plan," scolds Negan. "Her and I, we come here, we get Hershel, you stay with her people where you're safe. That was the whole goddamn point! That you stay safe."

Negan can't go with her, and Ginny can't stay with him. "I am not who you think I am," he tells her. She finally speaks for the first time since her father's death months ago: "I want you to--" but before she can say another word, Negan does the only thing he can to get her to leave. "I killed your dad," he tells her. "I'm not wanted for robbing a wagon train. I killed five men. And your dad, he was one of them. It's why I tracked you down to the farm. Why I let you tag along, 'cause I knew you had no one. You? You're just a debt that I had to pay. That's it."

Ginny leaves without another word as Negan sheds a tear. Later, Maggie and Negan scope out the arena where the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) has established his New Sanctuary. Negan is confident he'll be able to work something out with the ex-Savior who idolizes him.

The dysfunctional duo takes to the streets and heads toward the building of billowing black smoke. The one that conspicuously blows smoke at the same time every morning and night ever since Maggie and Negan arrived on the island. He asks Maggie what she thinks Ginny wanted to tell him. But Maggie is a bad liar, and Negan doesn't buy her reasoning that she was trying to talk her way out of trouble.

Maggie and Negan trade glances. In the blink of an eye, Maggie and Negan both go for her knife. He hurls her into a wall, knocking her weapon away and throwing her to the ground. Negan takes off, hopping a rail and walking out over a beam. It's a balancing act as Maggie gives chase, trying not to stumble into the horde of walkers waiting below.

Negan tries to talk his way out of the fight, but she takes a swipe at him with her knife. He overpowers his attacker and almost knocks her off the platform into the undead masses below. Negan yells for her to stop, but Maggie plunges her knife into his shoulder. The scuffle ends with Negan's knife at her throat -- and an order to stand down.

He's figured out that Maggie lied about the circumstances surrounding Hershel's (Logan Kim) abduction. The Croat didn't steal their grain and extort the Bricks for their harvest. The Croat took her son because he wanted Maggie to bring him Negan.

"He wanted me. And for what? Who the hell knows. But whatever that crazy son of a bitch wants with me, I sure as shit ain't gonna like it. You and I both know that much," Negan tells her. "The shit thing is, Maggie, we could have done it! We could have saved Hershel. Because you and I together, we made one hell of a badass team. But you know that, don't you? Maybe some part of you always wanted it to end this way. The fact is, Maggie, it doesn't matter what excuses I give you or how many apologies I offer -- you can't get over it. And you shouldn't."

Before Negan can say another word about Glenn, the Croat's Burazi finds them. With Maggie's knife to Negan's throat, the Croat smiles. It's revealed that the Croat returned to the Saviors' Sanctuary to find it abandoned, and after months of searching the mainland, learned from an ex-Savior "the story of the Widow."

When he learned of Maggie's history with Negan -- "vulnerabilities to be exploited," as the Croat puts it -- he knew that taking Maggie's son was the push she'd need to find Negan and bring him to New York. Doma smo.

At the bank building, Maggie leads Negan inside like a man to the gallows with her knife pressed to his throat. The Burazi lead them to a vault. "Just look after Ginny, will you?" a contrite Negan asks Maggie. "That's all I ask." The door opens, revealing Hershel. He's alive, with hate and anger in his eyes. Negan takes Maggie's hand, still gripped to her knife, and moves it down. He accepts his fate and hands himself over to his fate. The exchange happens as Hershel walks toward Maggie, and Negan toward the Croat. "It's good to see you, kid," Negan says to Hershel, who is quickly enveloped in the arms of his mother.

Back at New Babylon, Armstrong tells his director (Jasmin Walker) that he tracked the fugitive Negan to New York. He made a move to escape, so Armstrong shot and killed him. Negan is dead. A shame: she wanted Negan alive so she could have him executed and strung up to put on display and "make a statement." She not-so-subtly reminds Armstrong that they had eyes on his family -- Marjorie, Bea, and Dessie -- while he was away working to protect their body politic. She reminds him how ethanol comes from corn, which takes up thousands of acres of fields. So what I'd like you to do, Marshal, I'd like you to tell me your story again. And this time, I want you to tell me all about the methane."

In New York, Maggie and Hershel look out at Liberty Island. Their conversation is terse. "All we ever do back home is wait for the next bad thing to happen," the teen grumbles. "If anything, I felt safer back there." Maggie doesn't know what to say to that. He finds the baseball cap that Negan gifted Maggie to give to Hershel, which he sarcastically writes off as "a souvenir for being kidnapped." Finally, Hershel unloads:

"It's like you're obsessed with him. With Negan. With what he did. Getting him back," Hershel tells mom. Maggie protests that she came to New York for him, not Negan. "I'm right here, but you don't see me," he fires back. "It's like my whole life, you've been looking over my shoulder, watching for him, waiting for him. But you never see me." Maggie cries.

In the city, the Croat transports Negan in the back of an ambulance and reminisces about the time he handled the River People "like an actor commanding the stage," with all the swagger of a rock star. "But what is a rock star without his microphone? So, out came Lucille," the Croat says of Negan's barbwire-covered vampire bat. "Then you turned, and you offered her to me. I didn't understand. I'd only just arrived at the Sanctuary. I was nothing. I was broken. But you saw something in me. Not what I was. But what I could become." He grows emotional over the beautiful brotherhood they had at the Sanctuary. The Croat tells his idol that he never should have disobeyed Negan's orders and tortured that girl to death. "I became the threat that needed to be handled," he realizes. "I promise you, that will never happen again."

At the Bricks, Maggie checks in on Ginny, slipping in the room to return her stuffed dinosaur and slipping back out without a word. In Hershel's room, she makes her mea culpa to her son. "For a long time, for most of my life, I felt like the world kept taking... and kept taking and... I think at some point, I thought that if I could just fight hard enough, I'd be able to get it back. A little piece of it, at least," she confesses. "But it doesn't work that way, because you just end up losing what you got. And I don't want to keep doing that anymore. I don't know how, but this thing with Negan... I'm gonna finish it. So that I can just let it go."

In New York, the Croat takes Negan to the Dama (Lisa Emery). "My battles with the tribe, the rats I had to exterminate, that was practice for the war to come. Once we have full control of the island, Dama says a clash of civilizations is inevitable," the Croat says. "So when I told her about all the good you had done, all the people you had saved and protected, she said you are the missing piece." He's giddy like a child, beaming about "mommy and daddy coming together." He's summarily dismissed by the Dama, who marvels at the rock star sat before her. "I heard about your performance at the bank. The taunting, the joking, that extra-but-absolutely-necessary pinch of gruesomeness," she says of his bloody knock-knock joke. "Shock and awe, and all of that. Bravo."

The Dama presents Negan with Armstrong's marshal badge. She explains that the New Babylon Federation will come for their natural resource: the methane that the Croat's Sanctuary produces from corpses. "The island needs leadership. Now more than ever," she says. "Someone with confidence, fearlessness, charisma, that special, shall we say, political talent. For what is politics if not performance?" The tribe has been eliminated, but there are settlements as far north as Harlem. The Dama hands Negan the literal keys to the kingdom. "If we can unite them under one rule, we'll be indomitable. And all of it, that can all be yours again." But first, she needs to be sure that Negan is the man he used to be.

Negan unlocks the small box before him. Inside is a toe. Back at the Bricks, a shoeless Hershel is missing his pinky toe. "My former guest and I had a lot of talks. He told me this story of a man who murdered his father, not just in front of his mother, but him, the unborn baby in her belly," the Dama reveals. "And I could sense in the rest of this story what he himself couldn't. That his father's killer might feel remorseful, responsible for the boy whose family he destroyed."

Maggie makes Hershel's bed and finds his drawings: of New York, of the bank vault, of a woman that Maggie doesn't recognize. It's the Dama. "Of course, he only told me this once he felt safe with me," she explains to Negan. "And here you are, come all this way to save him. As you know, I eventually let him go in exchange for you. But I kept a little piece of him. And I can always go back for more." Negan silently sips his drink. "Make it last," she tells him. "We have a lot to discuss. A lot to plan for."

The screen splits. Maggie and Negan's faces become one as "Slipping Away" by Nine Inch Nails plays. "I keep slipping / I keep slipping away / myself keeps slipping away / tried to save myself / tried to save..." End of season one.

The Walking Dead: Dead City will return for season 2 at AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

No one's gone until they're gone. Daniel Sharman will reprise his role as Troy Otto in the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead, AMC announced in a clip that screened during The Walking Dead Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con. While that footage hasn't been released to watch online, the network confirmed Troy will be back from the dead when the Walking Dead spin-off returns with its final six episodes on October 22nd. (Trailers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live did make their way online after the hour-long Comic-Con panel, which we've recapped here.)

AMC made Sharman's return official in a video recapping the TWDU panel in 30 seconds. Watch it below:

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Sharman played Troy Otto until he was killed off in the "Things Bad Begun" penultimate episode of Fear the Walking Dead season 3. The psychopathic son of border militiaman Jeremiah Otto Sr. (Dayton Callie), he was exiled from Broke Jaw Ranch by his brother Jake (Sam Underwood) and buddied up to Nick Clark (Frank Dillane). After it was revealed that Troy led the walker horde that destroyed the ranch, Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) bludgeoned him with a hammer -- seemingly killing him.

But Troy survived. A coda ending the season 8 "All I See Is Red" midseason finale showed a mystery person in possession of Victor Strand's (Colman Domingo) sunglasses and Alicia Clark's (Alycia Debnam-Carey) prosthetic arm as they tuned into a message broadcast by Madison Clark -- who also survived her apparent death back in season 4.

"My name is Madison Clark. If you can hear this message, you are in the territory PADRE once patrolled. PADRE has fallen. They are no longer a threat to you or your children," said a Madison voiceover, broadcasting coordinates to reunite parents whose children have been stolen by PADRE. "We will find you. We will do our best to reunite you with your children. We'll make up for all the damage PADRE did to you."

The Troy-Madison reunion won't be a happy one: footage from the upcoming second half of season 8 shows a hammer-wielding Madison lunging at someone who appears to be Troy.

"It's such a gigantic task to think about bringing all these stories, all these character journeys, not just to a conclusion, but also bringing them full circle," showrunner Ian Goldberg said on AMC's Inside Fear the Walking Dead Final Season Part 1 special. "When we started to think about, 'Where do we want these characters to end up?' It led to the question of, 'Where did they start?'"

Added showrunner Andrew Chambliss, "We wanted to look back at these characters from their very beginnings on this show and look at who they were back then, and who they were now, and we can see how far they've come."

With Morgan Jones (Lennie James) exiting the series in the season 8A finale, season 8B will circle back to season 3 with Dickens' Madison as series lead.

"The theme that kept coming to the front of our minds was just this idea of family. And it all started with Madison Clark," Chambliss said. "She was this matriarch at the beginning of the apocalypse who always wanted to protect her kids, who wanted to create a world where they could be safe. Who wanted to give them something that really didn't exist anymore. It all kind of boils down to the story -- the story we want to tell, the story that we think will bring together all the themes, all the characters, everyone's stories in a way that will feel satisfying. And also feel like it has some real finality to it."

Fear the Walking Dead season 8 returns October 22nd on AMC and AMC+. You can catch up on all eight seasons now on AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

How do you say "sneak peek" in French? The first 10 minutes of the September 10th series premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon are streaming now on AMC+, revealing an extended look at the new Walking Dead spin-off that finds the American Daryl (Norman Reedus) marooned in post-apocalyptic France. More specifically: the Old Port of Marseille in southern France's zombie-plagued Provence region. The sneak peek is now available to watch exclusively over at amcplus.com, where AMC+ subscribers can get early access to new episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon starting Thursday, September 7th.

AMC first released the 10-minute preview, along with the full Daryl Dixon trailer, during its Walking Dead Universe Fan Watch Party panel at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend. The network describes the September 10th premiere: "Months after we last saw him in The Walking Dead, Daryl Dixon finds himself transported across the Atlantic to France."

The footage opens with Daryl strapped to a capsized dinghy adrift in the Mediterranean Sea. "You deserve a happy ending too," says a Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming) voiceover, an echo of what she told her "uncle Daryl" in The Walking Dead's "Rest in Peace" series finale. After washing ashore, Daryl wanders into the lifeless Mediterranean city. A sign with directions in a language he can't read points him to les ports de Martigues. Daryl is far from home, and there are no signs of life anywhere.

Daryl rummages through a docked boat and scavenges a water bottle, a coat, and a tape recorder that reveals its passengers did not survive their voyage. "19 months at sea. Hoping to stay ahead of this thing. Circled Spain. Nowhere's safe," says the voice of a father, pictured with his wife and daughter. "We'll try Marseille next. Maybe the south of France is good. There's got to be a safe place somewhere. Sue had a heart attack. We had to let her go. I had to... take care of it. Our 10th anniversary would have been in June. Holly keeps crying. She wants her mum back. She wants things the way they were. She wants to go home."

Daryl points a line from Marseille to Biarritz on a map. He records his own message: "My name's Daryl Dixon. I come from a place called the Commonwealth. It's in America. I went out looking for something. All I found was trouble. If I don't make it back, I want them to know I tried. Hell, I'm still trying."

A stranger in a strange land, Daryl treks through the French countryside, over bridges and mountains, until he reaches a dilapidated city. He walks past raffiti reading "pouvoir des vivants," or "power of the living." But there is only death. Daryl forages for food inside an old factory, failing to heed a warning he can't read: "ATTENTION AFFAM?S ICI." Translation: "Hungry here."

Daryl doesn't hear the growling of a lurker: walkers that lie dormant until they can eat the flesh of the living. As the lurker rises, Daryl finds himself surrounded. Using a pole he's fashioned into a walking stick and spear, Daryl impales a lurking walker in the brain and slices another, spilling blackened blood that is acidic.

Daryl fends off the acid-blooded walkers, but one lunges at him and grabs his bare arm, burning his skin with its touch. When his spear gets stuck in a walker's head, he unsheathes his knife and hurls it into the forehead of the last lurker. Daryl sits with his head in his hands, leaving him to question how he got there -- and how he's ever getting home.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres September 7th on AMC and September 10th on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

The Walking Dead is dead. Long live The Walking Dead Universe. After AMC's flagship zombie drama ended with its November series finale, the network returned to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday to preview the next phase of the TWDU. There were trailers. There were announcements. And there were surprises. Below, we rounded up all the Comic-Con highlights and reveals from The Walking Dead Universe Fan Watch Party in Hall H, including The Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Fear the Walking Dead, and The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne.

Earlier this year, AMC's Walking Dead Universe chief content officer Scott M. Gimple said in a statement: "The Walking Dead Universe LIVES! To conclude Fear the Walking Dead, we're thrilled to be bringing you one of its most vibrant, inventive, exciting seasons EVER, while breaking new ground with old favorites: Maggie and Negan in the madhouse of post-apocalyptic Manhattan with no one to depend on but each other...Daryl Dixon in France, a loner who cannot move through this new dangerous world alone, facing vicious enemies and never-seen-before threats of the undead. And Rick and Michonne, in a romantic saga of the dangerous road to each other, and the road they must find with each other, cornered by a new civilization and hordes of the dead."

The road starts at San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

The Walking Dead: Dead City and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Renewed for Season 2

Ahead of The Walking Dead: Dead City season finale on July 23rd, AMC announced the Maggie and Negan Walking Dead spin-off starring Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been renewed for season 2. The series from creator and showrunner Eli Jorn? debuted in June as the #1 season premiere in the history of AMC+ in terms of viewership across all new and returning series, including The Walking Dead, and has seen increased viewership with each week. (For more, click here.)

The network also gave an early renewal for Norman Reedus spin-off The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which premieres September 10th on AMC and AMC+. (For more, click here.)

Said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks: "This next chapter in the Walking Dead Universe continues to thrive with a terrific inaugural season for Dead City and highly anticipated new journey for fan-favorite character Daryl Dixon coming in September. We can't wait to bring Dead City fans back to the epicenter of Manhattan for more zip-lining action with Maggie and Negan. And, ahead of its debut, we're thrilled to double down on Daryl as we bring the apocalypse to France, transforming Notre Dame, Pont du Gard and other iconic locales into an apocalyptic landscape unlike anything we've seen before."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Trailer and Sneak Peek

AMC released The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Comic-Con trailer (watch it here), revealing new footage from the series that finds Daryl (Reedus) marooned in France. Genet (Anne Charrier) and Codron (Romain Levi) are after "the American" messenger, charged with protecting the survivor who will lead the revival of humanity: an 11-year-old boy named Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi).

The first minutes of the Daryl Dixon series premiere screened exclusively for Comic-Con attendees, but AMC+ subscribers can watch the 10-minute sneak peek at home starting Saturday, July 22nd.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Part 2 Release Date

AMC announced the premiere date for the final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead: Sunday, October 22nd. Only six episodes remain of the eighth and final season of the original Walking Dead spin-off, which enters its endgame with a cast that includes Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), Luciana (Danay Garc?a), and Daniel Salazar (Rub?n Blades).

Fear the Walking Dead Streaming on AMC+

For the first time, all eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead are available to stream on AMC+. The network made the announcement with a retrospective teaser looking back at the first seven seasons before the end of Fear begins this fall.

The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne Title Revealed

The Walking Dead spin-off reuniting Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) has an official title: The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The title refers to the secret saying that Rick and Michonne shared with their children, Judith (Cailey Fleming) and Rick "RJ" Grimes Jr. (Antony Azor), that was revealed in a coda ending The Walking Dead series finale.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Trailer

AMC released a brief teaser trailer revealing the first look at the Rick and Michonne Walking Dead spin-off (watch it here) from showrunner Scott M. Gimple. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live consists of six episodes and premieres on AMC and AMC+ in 2024.

According to AMC's description: "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?"

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

All eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead are now streaming exclusively on AMC+. Rival Hulu had the rights to the first seven seasons of the AMC series, but with those rights expiring in June, the show has returned to the network's own streaming service. And during the Walking Dead Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, AMC shared a retrospective teaser (above) to announce that all episodes of the Walking Dead spin-off are available for binging on AMC+. It was also revealed when the remaining six episodes of Fear's eighth and final season premiere on AMC and AMC+: October 22nd.

Titled "The End Is the Beginning," the 90-second retrospective looks back at a journey that traveled from Los Angeles, to Mexico, to Texas, to Georgia. It's a journey that ends with the Fear the Walking Dead series finale slated to air November 26th.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 1

The companion series to The Walking Dead, is set in LA at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 2

Fear the Walking Dead returns at sea, aboard the Abigail, but is water safer than land?

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 3

Families will be brought together in the vibrant and violent region formerly known as the U.S.-Mexico border. International lines done away with following the world's end, our characters must attempt to rebuild not only society, but family as well.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 4

We see the world of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and her family through new eyes - the eyes of Morgan Jones (Lennie James), who is joining the story from the world of The Walking Dead. The characters' immediate pasts mix with an uncertain present of struggle and discovery as they meet new friends, foes and threats.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 5

The group's mission is clear: locate survivors and help make what's left of the world a slightly better place. With dogged determination, Morgan Jones leads the group with a philosophy rooted in benevolence, community and hope.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 6

This season explores what has become of the unlikely family once united by a mission to help those in need. After being torn apart by Virginia (Colby Minifie) and her Pioneers, the group is now dispersed across her far-reaching settlements. Morgan's last message at the end of season five implored the group to "Just Live" and this season we'll see what that means to each of them.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 7

Teddy (John Glover) brought about his vision of "The End" when he detonated nuclear warheads across the Texas landscape, but it will be up to those who survived to decide what "The Beginning" will look like. And they'll have to do it in a world devoid of light and hope, where the outside air is just as deadly as the walkers they face.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 8

The eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead kicks off with the first six episodes following Morgan and Madison's plans to rescue Mo from PADRE, and seven years later -- Morgan, Madison and the rest of the people they brought to the island are living under PADRE's cynical rule. With our characters demoralized and dejected, the task of reigniting everyone's belief in a better world is the person Morgan and Madison set out to rescue in the first place -- a now eight-year-old Mo.

Fear the Walking Dead returns with its final episodes Sunday, October 22nd, on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon finds Daryl (Norman Reedus) marooned in France -- but his first stop is San Diego. AMC showed off a new trailer for the Walking Dead spin-off at its San Diego Comic-Con panel Friday, revealing an extended look at the next series in the Walking Dead Saga (watch it above). Premiering September 10th on AMC and AMC+, Daryl Dixon is set and shot in and around Paris, France, with zombie action taking place everywhere from the French countryside to such landmarks as the Catacombs, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. AMC also announced it's doubling down on Daryl Dixon with an early season 2 renewal.

In The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, "Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan."

Set to "Clair de Lune," the epic footage shows some of the new Walking Dead Universe characters who will encounter "the American." Among them: the nun Isabelle (The Tunnel's Cl?mence Po?sy), a Parisian member of a progressive religious group; displaced Brit Quinn (The Terror's Adam Nagaitis), a black marketeer who owns the sexy underground nightclub the Demimonde; and French survivors Fallou (Lumumba's Eriq Ebouaney), Sylvie (Reign Supreme's Laika Blanc Francard), and Laurent (newcomer Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) -- an 11-year-old boy born at the onset of the zombie outbreak who, we're told, is destined to "lead the revival of humanity."

"We've been waiting for you," Isabelle tells Daryl, the messenger preordained to safely deliver Laurent across France. Along the way, they're pursued by the shadowy Genet (Paid's Anne Charrier) and her hunter Codron (Savages' Romain Levi) for mysterious reasons.

The new show is largely standalone and "embraces a Stranger In a Strange Land kind of scenario, where we're exploring post-apocalyptic Europe through the eyes of Daryl Dixon," director and executive producer Greg Nicotero previously told ComicBook, referring to Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 novel about a human raised on Mars who struggles to understand customs on an alien world: Earth.

With The Walking Dead series finale ending on a hopeful note -- Daryl rode off on his motorcycle after a hug goodbye to Carol (Melissa McBride), setting off for a potential reunion with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) -- that tone will carry over to Daryl Dixon.

"There was a part of [the series finale] where I smiled a little bit, and that tone kind of makes it into the spin-off a little bit," Reedus previously explained to ComicBook about Daryl Dixon. "And then 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."

What's out there is deliberately different from The Walking Dead, which ended after 11 seasons and 177 episodes in November. "The tone is much different, the [cinematography is] much different. The lighting's different," Reedus said. "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?'"

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres Sunday, September 10th, on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

Rick and Michonne are the ones who live. During a San Diego Comic-Con panel inside Hall H on Friday, AMC revealed the title of the Rick Grimes and Michonne Walking Dead spin-off starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira is The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The network also released the first teaser trailer (watch it above). Originally developed as a Rick Grimes movie trilogy, Lincoln and Gurira made a surprise appearance at last year's convention to announce that they would reunite in a new series that will be "the conclusion of this story of Rick and Michonne." But Rick and Michonne's love story is far from over.

Premiering with a six-episode season in 2024, the show formerly titled The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne picks up years after Rick disappeared aboard a Civic Republic Military helicopter and Michonne went searching for the father of her children, Judith (Cailey Fleming) and Rick "RJ" Grimes Jr. (Antony Azor). "I've been out there a long time. I lost someone, years ago," Michonne narrates over explosive footage of katana-sliced walkers and CRM soldiers. "And then things changed. I found out that he's alive."

The red-colored teaser trailer shows glimpses of a blood-splattered, machete-wielding Rick Grimes, who has spent years in captivity working as "Consignee Grimes" at a CRM zombie-culling facility after his fateful helicopter flight with Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). The Walking Dead: World Beyond confirmed that Jadis trafficked Rick for entry into the Civic Republic, a fortified city in post-apocalyptic Philadelphia, after she shuttled him away from his friends and family on season 9 of The Walking Dead in 2018.

The Rick and Michonne spin-off "presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world," according to AMC. "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?"

Showrunner Scott M. Gimple created the series and executive produces alongside Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth (The Walking Dead), and Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: Dead City). The Walking Dead Universe veterans Michael E. Satrazemis (Fear the Walking Dead) and Channing Powell (Tales of the Walking Dead) are co-executive producers, while franchise statesman Greg Nicotero -- who directed the Rick and Michonne coda that ended The Walking Dead series finale -- serves as consulting producer.

Gimple has described the series as an "epic and insane love story" that finds the two characters at their most deadly, as evidenced by the brief but bloody first footage.

"These are two people that have been separated for a very long time. They've lived whole other existences and they have to find themselves again, let alone each other. And it's hopefully going to be mind-blowing," Gimple said on The Walking Dead Universe Preview 2022 special. "We see this incredible power couple, but we also see that Red Machete Rick. We see that Michonne who taught a thing or two to the Governor. It kind of goes coast to coast that way between the intimate and the epic and the insane."

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

The End Is the Beginning -- but it's the beginning of the end for Fear the Walking Dead. AMC's original Walking Dead spin-off has set a date for the second half of its eighth and final season, which premiered its first six episodes in May. On Friday, the network announced during the Walking Dead Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con that Fear the Walking Dead returns with its final six episodes Sunday, October 22nd, at 9 pm ET/8c on AMC and AMC+. The reveal came with confirmation that that was indeed Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) back from the dead in a credits scene that ended season 8A.

Fear's mid-season finale followed the series premiere of The Walking Dead: Dead City in June, and next, the upcoming mid-season premiere will air the same night as the first season finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon on October 22nd.

June's "All I See Is Red" mid-season finale ended with Morgan Jones (Lennie James) leaving the series after rescuing his daughter, Mo (Zoey Merchant), from P.A.D.R.E. When Fear the Walking Dead season 8 returns in the fall, it will be with a focus on its original cast of characters: Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), Luciana (Danay Garc?a), and Daniel Salazar (Rub?n Blades).

Developed by franchise creator Robert Kirkman and original showrunner Dave Erickson, Fear first debuted on August 23rd, 2015, as a companion series to The Walking Dead. The since-ended flagship spawned new spin-offs that comprise the second phase of the TWDU: The Walking Dead: Dead City, following Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) into post-apocalyptic Manhattan; The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which finds Daryl (Norman Reedus) marooned in France; and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, reuniting Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).

"It's a truly exciting year for The Walking Dead Universe, as we conclude an epic journey on Fear the Walking Dead, which became one of the most successful shows in the history of cable television," Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios at AMC Networks, said in a statement earlier this year. "And now we are set to bring forth the next iteration of the franchise."

"This next phase of our beloved Walking Dead franchise promises to engage and enthrall faithful viewers," McDermott continued. "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."

Fear the Walking Dead's final episodes premiere October 22nd on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

AMC is doubling down on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. During the Walking Dead Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, the network announced an early renewal for the upcoming spin-off starring Norman Reedus, which premieres September 10th on AMC and AMC+. That's not all. AMC also released new footage in an extended Daryl Dixon Comic-Con trailer and announced its Maggie and Negan spin-off, The Walking Dead: Dead City, has been picked up for a second season. No release dates have been set, but Daryl Dixon season 2 and Dead City season 2 could air by 2024.

"This next chapter in the Walking Dead Universe continues to thrive with a terrific inaugural season for Dead City and highly anticipated new journey for fan-favorite character Daryl Dixon coming in September," Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, said in a statement. "We can't wait to bring Dead City fans back to the epicenter of Manhattan for more zip-lining action with Maggie and Negan. And, ahead of its debut, we're thrilled to double down on Daryl as we bring the apocalypse to France, transforming Notre Dame, Pont du Gard and other iconic locales into an apocalyptic landscape unlike anything we've seen before."

After debuting the trailer and sneak peek at Comic-Con, AMC will make the first 10 minutes of the Daryl Dixon series premiere episode available to watch exclusively on AMC+ beginning Saturday, July 22nd.

The first season of Daryl Dixon consists of six episodes and follows the fish-out-of-water American (Reedus) after he washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan.

Alongside Reedus, the series stars an international cast that includes Cl?mence Po?sy (Harry Potter) as Isabelle, Adam Nagaitis (The Terror) as Quinn, Anne Charrier (Maison Close) as Genet, Eriq Ebouaney (Femme Fatale) as Fallou, Laika Blanc Francard (Reign Supreme) as Sylvie, Romain Levi (Savages) as Codron, and newcomer Louis Puech Scigliuzzi as Laurent, a young boy entrusted into Daryl's care.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres Sunday, September 10th, at 9 PM/8c on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

Maggie and Negan will be back on the mean streets of Manhattan in a New York minute. The Walking Dead: Dead City has been renewed for a second season at AMC, the network announced during its Walking Dead Universe San Diego Comic-Con panel on Friday. The Walking Dead spin-off premiered its six-episode first season on June 18th and follows enemies Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) into post-apocalyptic New York City. Dead City delivered streaming service AMC+ the #1 season premiere in its three-year history in terms of viewership across all new and returning series, including The Walking Dead, with viewership on AMC and AMC+ growing with each successive week to date.

AMC also announced an early second season pickup for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, the upcoming spin-off starring Norman Reedus that premieres in September.

"This next chapter in the Walking Dead Universe continues to thrive with a terrific inaugural season for Dead City and highly anticipated new journey for fan-favorite character Daryl Dixon coming in September," said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. "We can't wait to bring Dead City fans back to the epicenter of Manhattan for more zip-lining action with Maggie and Negan. And, ahead of its debut, we're thrilled to double down on Daryl as we bring the apocalypse to France, transforming Notre Dame, Pont du Gard and other iconic locales into an apocalyptic landscape unlike anything we've seen before."

There's still unfinished business in the Big Apple. #DeadCity returns for season 2. pic.twitter.com/kp2rMTcpEo

-- The Walking Dead (@WalkingDead_AMC) July 21, 2023

Alongside Cohan and Morgan reprising their roles from the since-ended flagship series, Dead City stars Logan Kim as Maggie and Glenn's son, Hershel, Gaius Charles as New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong, Mahina Napoleon as Ginny, Lisa Emery as the Dama, and ?eljko Ivanek as The Croat, a former Savior who establishes a new Sanctuary in NYC. The first season co-starred Karina Ortiz, Jonathan Higginbotham, and Michael Anthony as native New Yorkers whose tribe has been surviving in zombie-infested Manhattan since the U.S. military quarantined the island at the start of the outbreak in 2010. Cohan and Morgan also serve as executive producers along with showrunner and series creator Eli Jorn?.

Dead City's premiere outperformed Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, and Tales of the Walking Dead on AMC+, which launched in 2020. On cable, an on-air total of 1.12 million viewers tuned in to watch the first episode across airings on AMC, BBC America, and IFC. 449,000 of those viewers belong to AMC's core demographic of adults 25-54, a figure that marked the best for any drama series debut on cable this year.

The fifth series in the Walking Dead Universe, Dead City picks up years after Maggie and Negan reached their uneasy detente in the original show's series finale that aired last November. Maggie entrusted Negan with her son's life, but told him she couldn't forget or forgive him for killing Glenn (Steven Yeun) in The Walking Dead's infamous season 7 premiere. The dysfunctional duo will once again be lured back into New York for season 2.

The Dead City renewal comes ahead of the linear airing of the season 1 finale, "Doma Smo," which was released early Thursday for AMC+ subscribers and premieres Sunday, July 23rd, on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

Skybound has today revealed The Walking Dead: Betrayal, which is the latest video game to come about based on the hit multimedia series. Over the past decade, a number of different games tied to The Walking Dead have released, all of differing genres and gameplay styles. Now, Skybound is partnering with Other Ocean Interactive for TWD: Betrayal, which is far more multiplayer-centric compared to past outings.

Announced alongside an initial trailer, The Walking Dead: Betrayal is a "game of cooperation and social deception" that allows between five and eight people to play at a time. At its core, Betrayal is a third-person action game that will see survivors attempting to stay alive while fighting off the zombie masses. TWD: Betrayal puts teamwork at its core, but in every match, teams will be forced to deal with "traitors" among themselves. These traitors are secretive to the rest of the group and those playing as the pseudo-antagonist will have to find ways to sabotage the group without giving themselves away. Essentially, Betrayal is The Walking Dead's version of Among Us, as it contains many of the same qualities as the mega-hit game.

You can get a first look at The Walking Dead: Betrayal in the video below:

"We're tremendously excited to unveil this latest The Walking Dead experience that fully immerses players with a fresh and unique take on social deception gameplay," said The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman in a statement accompanying the reveal of Betrayal. "Partnering with Other Ocean Interactive, true innovators in this game genre, will allow players to experience hordes of deceit and distrust as they struggle to work together to survive and escape."

Currently, The Walking Dead: Betrayal doesn't have a specific launch date, but it is known to be coming to PC via Steam in the future. In the near term, Other Ocean Interactive and Skybound will be holding a closed beta for the game next month starting on August 10th. Those interested in taking part in this testing phase can sign-up and gain more information through the game's official Discord.

In other Skybound news, the company just recently announced a video game adaptation of Invincible as well that is being created in tandem with Ubisoft. Titled Invincible: Guarding the Globe, the game is planned to come to mobile devices and should be releasing soon.

[This story contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 5, "Stories We Tell Ourselves."] It's true that the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) took Maggie's (Lauren Cohan) son, Hershel (Logan Kim). And it's true that Maggie needs Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to get him back. But what isn't true is the story that Maggie told Negan and, eventually, Ginny (Mahina Napoleon). Maggie claimed that the Croat and his Burazi stole their grain with plans to return for more, taking Hershel hostage to coerce the Bricks into handing over their harvest. But Maggie lied. All along, the Croat wanted to trade Hershel for Negan and hand him over to the Dama (Lisa Emery).

The truth came out in a flashback to the night Ginny ran away from the Bricks. She discovered that the grain Maggie said was stolen was, in fact, not stolen. As Maggie was overcome by the methane in the tunnels beneath the Croat's New Sanctuary, she flashed back to what really happened the night he took Hershel: as the Burazi took Maggie's son away, the Croat handed her Negan's wanted poster. She tracked down Negan knowing that the only way to save her son was to give up the man who killed his father.

So what does Cohan make of this wrinkle not painting Maggie in the most heroic light? "I was so glad when [showrunner Eli Jorn?] came with this story and that this was the twist," Cohan told EW. "It was something I just didn't see coming and couldn't have seen coming."

The penultimate episode posed a question to audiences, who may have an allegiance to either Maggie or Negan: "It's like, what would you do? If somebody said to you, here's this person and he may have changed, but you may need to say these things, what would you do?"

As New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) comes to understand, the answer is perhaps not so black and white. "Is it really so black and white? You'd asked me back then, I would've said yes. But now? I don't know. Is it gray? Is it something else?" the lawman told the fugitive Negan, who twice saved the life of the man trying to haul him in to be executed by the New Babylon Federation. "Tranquillitas ordinis." The tranquility of order. "What if it's just stories we tell ourselves to sleep easier?"

"Is there capacity to change?" Cohan said of Negan and Maggie, who is haunted by nightmares about what her enemy-turned-ally did to her husband, Glenn (Steven Yeun). "Can you allow yourself to still honor the love that you had for your husband and know that they wouldn't have wanted you to live forever in the grief and the resentment and the rage against the person who did this? And ultimately, as humans, can we look at the most heinous act and say it's possible we can change? The jury's still out for her, but all the things that are happening along the way are as interesting to me as to whether or not she would forgive him."

The Walking Dead: Dead City airs its "Doma Smo" season finale Sunday, July 23rd, on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

[This story contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 5, "Stories We Tell Ourselves."] "The show started out with a bang. But then there was a plot twist," says the Dama (Lisa Emery), offering meta-commentary in Sunday's "Stories We Tell Ourselves" episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City. "You thought you had your hero, but he got away. What good is a hero offstage? So, naturally, the ending fizzled -- and let's face it, everyone knows the ending is all that matters."

The penultimate episode of the season took a twisty turn when it was revealed that Maggie (Lauren Cohan) lied about the circumstances surrounding her son's abduction by the Croat (?eljko Ivanek). As it turns out, the former Savior didn't kidnap Hershel (Logan Kim) as part of an extortion plot to steal their harvest. The Croat took Hershel hostage to force Maggie into luring her old enemy, the fugitive Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), out of hiding and into Manhattan for the Dama's mysterious reasons.

But that's not all. After the last of Amaia (Karina Ortiz) and Tommaso's (Jonathan Higginbotham) tribe of native New Yorkers died during an ambush inside the Croat's New Sanctuary, Maggie figured out that Tommaso tipped off the Croat. And he's been a mole the entire time -- giving away the tribe's hideouts to be raided by the Croat's Burazi in exchange for a way off the island with Amaia.

Before she could come to terms with her boyfriend's betrayal, Amaia was torn apart by walkers in the methane-filled tunnels beneath New Sanctuary. Tommaso tried to save her, but he died when a "fleshie" bit his neck and bled him out, forcing Maggie to put him down with a stab to the brain.

"I don't think she had enough time to forgive him," Ortiz told ComicBook in an interview recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike. "I think she was still processing it, and also, she's dealing with barely being able to breathe [from the methane]. She's kind of almost given up for that moment because we just lost everybody [from the tribe], and that's really heavy to carry."

Amaia agreed to work with Maggie and Negan to bait the Croat into leaving his fortress so they could save Maggie's son and kill the man whose Burazi had been hunting her tribe. Tribespeople Esther (Eleanor Reissa), Luther (Michael Anthony), and Rizza (Aixa Kendrick) met their end one by one, until it was just Amaia and Tommaso. In the end, Tommaso died knowing it was his fault.

"While it was on his end, he's somebody that I trusted. Being one of the leaders, I put my people in danger," Ortiz said. "And so I have that guilt, as well. It's sad. It's sad that they don't get that chance to have a conversation. I think she was still processing it. I think she understands, ultimately, why he did it. And in this world where it's kind of like there's no right or wrong, good or bad. She's aware of that, but also, that was the family they had left. That's not something that anybody would be able to just get over right away."

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Thursdays on AMC+ and Sundays on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

The penultimate episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City opens in darkness. Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), and native New Yorkers Amaia (Karina Ortiz) and Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbotham) fled like rats into the tunnels beneath the new Sanctuary, where the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) makes fresh deposits to his methane bank: fresh corpses. This is the Croat "feeding the beast," using the dead to power the arena. Amaia blames herself for leading the Tribe into the Burazi's trap, but Tommaso says they should focus on getting out before they feel the effects of the methane: a pounding pulse, a jackhammer in the head, heavy eyes, and nausea.

Elsewhere, Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) has the fugitive Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) at gunpoint. Negan reminds him that his boat has sunk by now, the Croat has the island on lockdown -- oh, and Negan saved his ass back there. That doesn't absolve Negan from killing a New Babylon magistrate and four other men, the marshal says, but Negan calls it vigilante justice for what those men did to his wife.

In the sewers, Maggie's group comes across a wall of fat. The manholes are sealed, and they're starting to cough from the methane. Maggie is angry that Ginny showed up on the island searching for Negan. "You do not know the monster that I know," she tells the girl. "But if you stick around long enough, you will."

Armstrong is strong-arming Negan to get to the Chelsea Piers. The marina has floating docks built on modular plastic pontoons molded from sturdy polyurethane foam, meaning they can float their asses off the island. Ducking for cover from walkers inside an old fridge-turned-secret entrance, Negan and Armstrong happen across baby doll body parts strung up on a bed spring. The mutilated dolls -- a body with many limbs, another a decapitated head with limbs -- might be the work of "an avant-garde artist from before," Negan figures. "Or someone who lost their mind from after," Armstrong counters.

Somewhere beneath Hell's Kitchen, Tommaso breaks away from the group. He just so happens to find oxygen and gas masks, figuring they were left behind by the Burazi. But Maggie is suspicious. Amaia still can't figure out how the Croat knew they were coming. Tommaso suggests Luther tipped him off. After all, he disappeared just before the ambush.

"It was him," Maggie says. Not Luther. Tommaso. He knew exactly how to get out of the arena. He knew to go to the sewers. And he knew how to get inside. He says the methane is going to her head, but she points out he took off his backpack before finding the oxygen tanks. He had the tanks the whole time and was working with the Croat the whole time.

Tommaso cops to it. Taking back the island and reclaiming their home from the Croat and his Burazi was a fantasy. "Our home is gone, Amaia. It's been gone. Everyone is dead. What I did, it was the only way. I did it for you." Broken by the betrayal, Amaia walks off, leaving Tommaso to confront Maggie. A standoff diffuses itself and he walks off without a fight.

Back on the streets, Negan hurls a walker at Armstrong and makes a break for it. When he catches up, Negan explains why he saved him back at the arena: he doesn't like leaving people behind to die. "Even huge assholes." Negan offers to help the injured Armstrong if he gives up the chase, but the marshal refuses to budge.

In the tunnels, Maggie offers Amaia sanctuary at the Bricks just before collapsing from the methane. Through the fog of her mind, hazy memories become clear. She remembers racing after her son, Hershel (Logan Kim), who was ripped away by the Croat at the Bricks. She remembers Negan bashing Glenn's brains in. She remembers Hershel screaming for help. And she remembers Glenn dying. Then she's back.

Tommaso tries to explain himself. He gave up their hideouts to stay alive and get back to Amaia. If he brought their people to the Croat, he'd give them a boat and a way off the island. There's a place on the mainland that has homes with kitchens, rooms for your things, a farm, and school for your children. A home. "That shit sounded safe," he says, "because everything was made of brick."

Before Maggie can respond, Amaia screams. One of the many bodies piled up in the belly of the beast has her in its grip. As Maggie protects Ginny, Tommaso is too late to pull Amaia from the mass of bodies dragging her into the pile. Walkers tear Amaia's stomach open and sink their teeth into Tommaso's neck. Through a mouth of blood, he manages to get out his last words: "It's all my fault. I messed it all up." Maggie stabs his brain.

At the King Francis Theater, the Croat steps into a luxurious back room and reports that his informant delivered. The threat of the Tribe has been neutralized, and Negan is on the island. A woman with an air of elegance and elitism closes her book. Kerwin Lee Klein's "Frontiers of Historical Imagination - Narrating the European Conquest of Native America, 1890-1990." She is the Dama (Lisa Emery).

Sitting like a scolded child, the Croat sheepishly presents a New Babylon marshal's badge. "It's just as you said. There will be those who try to bring it all back, the old laws and prisons, to protect and serve," the Croat recites. "But really, like before, just to punish and steal and feed their fat bellies. Now they've come for what we've built. What's ours. So we have to be ready."

"Which is why we need him," the Dama says. "Which is why you f---ed up so royally." The Croat, kneeling at her side, promises to find him. "There is absolutely no way Negan will be getting off this island." As the Dama extends her hand, the Croat seals his promise with a kiss to her open palm like a good dog.

Back in the tunnels, Maggie is nearly overwhelmed by the methane. Ginny, making use of a gas mask, leads the way. Maggie hands her a water tank and tells her to get to the Bricks. Then she explains why she didn't tell Negan that Ginny was on the island. If she lets him know she's here, "It all falls apart. He'll leave. He'll take you back."

As Maggie tells it, a very bad man took all their grain and all the food that took months to produce. And he's going to keep taking it, every single harvest, until they starve to death. Worse than that, that bad man has her son. Negan is the key to getting him back. Ginny nods.

On the surface, Negan and Armstrong hole up in a school bus. Even Negan doesn't know why he's helping the cop. "My luck, they pin your death on me, and I'm wanted twice as bad. The next guy on my ass way worse than you. I guarantee it." Armstrong tells Negan about his brother, Joel, a good man with substance abuse issues who once got so high he broke into their parents' house and attacked their mothher. Armstrong never talked to his brother again. Three years after that, the city fell apart. "He was left to die all alone, in the worst possible place on the planet," Armstrong says through gritted teeth. "Is that what he deserved? Is it really so black and white? You'd asked me back then, I would've said yes. But now? I don't know. Is it gray? Is it something else? Tranquillitas ordinis." The tranquility of order. "What if it's just stories we tell ourselves to sleep easier?"

Under the city, Maggie and Ginny's exit is blocked by another pile of bodies "feeding the beast." Maggie's foot is entrenched in the squishing throng of corpses at her feet. The heat and methane has fused decaying bodies into a mass of limbs like a twisted art project. The six-armed walker crawls after Maggie and shambles to its feet, revealing another half-body mass joined to its side. It's a hulking Frankenstein's monster of rotting flesh with teeth. And it's hungry.

Maggie struggles to escape the monster that's toppled her. Two heads bite at her and six arms claw at her when a third head bursts free from its chest cavity like in Alien. Then another head rips through. Maggie tries not to succumb to the methane as she fights it off, stabbing the heads. All three of them. The six-armed walker collapses. A fourth head pops up, so Maggie stabs that too. She climbs up a ladder after Ginny. Written in blood is a message for Maggie: LIAR.

As Ginny crawls through sewer tunnels, we learn what really happened at the Bricks. Before she ran away, Ginny climbed atop the grain silo... and found it filled with grain. As Maggie weakly crawls after Ginny, she remembers what happened the night the Croat took Hershel. As the Burazi ripped Hershel from Maggie, the Croat handed Maggie a piece of paper. But not just any piece of paper. Negan's wanted poster.

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Thursdays on AMC+ and Sundays on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Norman Reedus is taking the "Seine-ic" route in a new look at The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. AMC has aired brief promos from the upcoming spin-off Sundays during episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City, showing Daryl (Reedus) strapped to a boat at sea; washing ashore and exploring Marseille, France; and seemingly being branded by French nuns. The latest teaser, which you can watch above, is more serene: Daryl floats along the Seine as the decaying Eiffel Tower reveals itself in post-apocalyptic Paris, France. "My name is Daryl Dixon," he narrates. "If I don't make it back, I want 'em to know I tried."

In the new Walking Dead spin-off premiering September 10th on AMC and AMC+, "Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan."

The Iron Lady isn't the only iconic location that will be Dead-ified. "We're destroying the Louvre and stuff," Reedus has teased of the series set and filmed in and around Paris. "Somehow I get put there, and I don't go there on my own free will."

Earlier this week, AMC announced the September release date and revealed first-look images showing the Parisian cast: Isabelle (Cl?mence Po?sy), Genet (Anne Charrier), Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney), Sylvie (Laika Blanc Francard), Codron (Romain Levi), and Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi). Adam Nagaitis (AMC's The Terror) will play Quinn, described as a displaced Brit who is a black marketeer and the owner of a sexy underground Paris nightclub.

Daryl Dixon is part of phase two of AMC's Walking Dead Universe, which has expanded with The Walking Dead: Dead City and will expand further with The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne in 2024.

"This next phase of our beloved Walking Dead franchise promises to engage and enthrall faithful viewers," Dan McDermott, President of Entertainment and AMC Studios, said during the Television Critics Association's winter press tour earlier this year. "Fans new and old will love seeing zombies walking across the Brooklyn Bridge [in Dead City], beneath the Eiffel Tower, inside the Louvre, and at dozens more exotic and iconic locations from around the country and world."

The network will reveal more about The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon at its San Diego Comic-Con 2023 panel ahead of the series premiere on Sunday, September 10th, on AMC and AMC+. For more about The Walking Dead Universe Comic-Con panel, click here.

Follow ComicBook for the latest San Diego Comic-Con 2023 news, and stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

San Diego Comic-Con is going to look a little dead this year. This week, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) declared a strike over an impasse in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP). Under the labor union's strike rules, about 160,000 actors and performers are prohibited from doing principal on-camera work, such as acting, and principal off-camera work, such as promotion or publicity services for work covered by the TV/Theatrical/Streaming contracts that expired on June 30th. That includes but is not limited to interviews, conventions, and panels -- which means your favorite stars are skipping San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

But the show -- and the convention -- must go on. AMC Networks is attending the annual confab to promote Walking Dead spin-offs The Walking Dead: Dead City (which airs its first season finale July 23rd), The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (premiering September 10th), the final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead (returning this fall), and The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne (slated to premiere in 2024).

AMC and AMC+ are hosting The Walking Dead Universe panel from the Hall H stage on Friday, July 21st, from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM. According to the official panel description, AMC's Comic-Con panel will give fans "exclusive, first-look access to all things The Walking Dead Universe."

It's not yet known what AMC plans to show or who will be in attendance during the hour-long panel, but fans should expect to see new looks at Fear the Walking Dead's final season and the six-episode first season of Daryl Dixon. Also likely to premiere is the first footage from Rick & Michonne, which Lincoln and Gurira announced during a surprise appearance on stage at last year's Comic-Con.

Typically, showrunners would be on hand to tease what's to come on their respective shows. But with the Writers Guild of America going on strike in May, writers and showrunners Eli Jorn? (Dead City), Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (Fear the Walking Dead), David Zabel (Daryl Dixon), and Scott M. Gimple (Rick & Michonne) are not permitted to promote struck projects. Like the actors, the writers are barred from specifically promoting any works under the expired TV/Theatrical/Streaming agreements. The showrunners are members of the WGA, including Gimple, who also serves as the chief content officer of AMC's Walking Dead Universe.

While Dead City, Fear, Daryl Dixon, and Rick & Michonne will have a presence at this year's convention, their casts will not. Your favorite cast members -- including Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kim Dickens, Colman Domingo, and many more -- can't cross picket lines to talk up their spin-offs at AMC's panel encompassing its Walking Dead shows. It's a stark contrast to last year's star-studded joint panel that featured actors from Tales of the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead's final season, including Terry Crews, Samantha Morton, and Danny Ramirez, and TWD fan-favorites including Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Ridloff, and Gurira and Lincoln.

Follow ComicBook for the latest San Diego Comic-Con 2023 news, and stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

One year after Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira announced their new Walking Dead spin-off at Comic-Con, Rick Grimes and Michonne are returning to San Diego. While the actors aren't attending The Walking Dead Universe panel amid the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike that commenced at midnight on Friday, July 14th, the convention crowd will be the first to get exclusive, first-look access to all things TWD from Comic-Con's Hall H. That includes The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and the final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, which have taken over The Pendry San Diego Hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter.

Photos of The Walking Dead Universe wrap decorating The Pendry (via @ParksAndCons on Twitter) reveal new key art for Daryl Dixon and Rick & Michonne. See the photos below.

#TheWalkingDead: Rick & Michonne art displayed at the #SDCC 2023.#RickGrimes #Michonne#TWD #RickAndMichonne #AndrewLincoln #DanaiGurira

? Parks And Cons pic.twitter.com/LCYwMrwnoC

-- Andrew Lincoln News (@AndyLincolnNews) July 15, 2023

#RickAndMichonne art joins the display at the Pendry #SDCC #ComicCon #TheWalkingDead pic.twitter.com/VLKtlUdz7Q

-- Parks And Cons (@ParksAndCons) July 15, 2023

Reads the logline for Norman Reedus' spin-off, which AMC announced is premiering in September: "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon follows Daryl as he washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan."

And the logline for Rick & Michonne, premiering in 2024: "The love story of Rick Grimes and Michonne is changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. Can they find each other and who they were in a situation unlike any they've ever known?"

Day 4 of Comic-Con, which runs from July 20th-July 23rd, coincides with the season finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City. All four Walking Dead spin-offs are expected to have a presence at AMC's Walking Dead Universe panel on July 21st, but unlike past years, your favorite stars won't be in attendance: according to the actors' strike rules, members of the performers union aren't permitted to promote their projects during the work stoppage.

Last year's star-studded TWDU panel featured the casts of Tales of the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead for the flagship show's last-ever SDCC panel. Along with cast members Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Lauren Ridloff, Cailey Fleming -- and surprise appearances by Lincoln and Gurira -- Walking Dead executive producers Angela Kang, Greg Nicotero, and Scott M. Gimple were on hand to promote the eleventh and final season.

Follow ComicBook for the latest San Diego Comic-Con 2023 news, and stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Negan and Maggie are teaming up. The Walking Dead: Dead City unites two of the unlikeliest of teammates within the vast Walking Dead world as Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan's characters are forced to use each other to get back two people they care about. Much of The Walking Dead: Dead City revolves around the events of the critically-acclaimed The Walking Dead Season 6 finale and the Season 7 premiere, which saw Negan butcher Maggie's husband Glenn with his barbed wire baseball bat. Even years removed from that moment, Maggie remains haunted by Negan's actions.

Now operating in New York City, Maggie is on the search for her son, Hershel, who has been taken by The Croat. Negan's past relationship with The Croat when they worked together for the Saviors makes him an asset to getting her son back, but his status as a wanted man all across Manhattan complicates matters. Perlie Armstrong, a marshal for the New Babylon Federation, is tasked with hunting down Negan.

Despite saving Perlie's life in the previous episode, Perlie is married to his mission and threatens to execute Negan for his various crimes. In an exclusive The Walking Dead: Dead City Episode 5 clip shared with ComicBook.com, Perlie continues to hold Negan at gunpoint the following day as they walk through NYC. You can watch the exclusive clip in the media player above.

The next episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City premieres on Sunday, July 16th on AMC. Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for a postmortem with one of the cast members immediately after the episode airs!

What Drew Lauren Cohan to this TWD Spin-off?

"When [Walking Dead Universe chief content officer and executive producer] Scott [Gimple] came to us, we've sort of talked to him a few times about possible iterations of a spinoff. And then this sort of cinched in us in New York City on a mission, an undeniable mission," Cohan told ComicBook.com. "That was going to allow us to look at these two people and really dig into [their dynamic]. That was really exciting to us because it's almost like they take one mini step backward in order to say, 'How do you really solve this? How do you really look at why they bring up what they bring up?' And I think to have the familiarity with us, and then to take it and thrust it into New York City, it just sounded like it was going to be a pretty good time."

[This story contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 4.] There were returns. There were reunions. And there was revenge on Sunday's "Everybody Wins a Prize" episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City. In the present, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) plotted to lure out the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) from his new Sanctuary in New York City, save her son, and kill the man Negan once failed to put down like "a rabid dog." But it was a trap: the Burazi unleashed a walker horde on the infiltrators as the Croat had his long-awaited reunion with his former Savior leader.

In the past, a flashback to the Sanctuary revealed the moment the Croat went "too far" and got himself excommunicated from the Saviors. We saw Negan with his leather jacket. We saw Negan with his barbwire-wrapped baseball bat Lucille. And we saw Negan with his right-hand man, Simon (Steven Ogg), in a scene-stealing cameo that saw him calling the Croat a "Slavic, psychopathic nutjob" for torturing a young girl to death -- a line Simon said the Saviors don't cross.

"I was so happy to get a chance to bring Steven back. What an amazing choice -- out of all the people in this universe we could have had come back, to have Ogg come back. I'd take him back any f---ing time," Morgan told EW about Ogg's surprise cameo. "It was so good to see him. And Steven is one of the funniest people you will ever meet. That guy's a trip, man. He is a laugh, he is a poet, and he's an individual that is unlike anyone I've ever met. I just adore him, so I feel really lucky to have had him come back. He can have his own f---ing series just doing anything and I would watch it."

Morgan noted that the typically chatty Negan didn't have any lines in his scene with Simon. Instead, his power-grabbing lieutenant talks about putting the "kibosh" on extracting information from a drifter who had holed up down the road from the Sanctuary. But the Croat, believing her to be a spy sent by the Kingdom, disobeyed a direct order to let her go -- and forced a confession through his lethal extraction "process."

"We did a rehearsal of that scene just to get our places where the camera needs to see us," Morgan said. "And it was the first day I'd worked with ?eljko in the whole series as well. During the rehearsal, Steven went full Ogg, and I remember looking at ?eljko, because he realized pretty quickly, 'Oh s---.' And so in the rehearsal, these two guys are going at it 120 percent. And I was sitting there just watching this going, 'Oh, f--- me. I don't know what they're going to do when the cameras are actually rolling because they're not rolling right now and they're going to kill each other!' It was spectacular. I'm glad I got to be a spectator on that one and just sort of feel it all."

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Thursdays on AMC+ and Sundays on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Norman Reedus teased a "religious vibe" in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. What he didn't tease in the new Walking Dead spin-off: nuns brandishing pokers and burning Daryl, who is strapped to a bed inside a French castle. (This is the second ominous teaser this week to conjure up imagery of scary nuns.) After snippets of footage showed Daryl washing ashore in post-apocalyptic Marseille, France, and exploring what could be the Primrose lab as seen on The Walking Dead: World Beyond, yet another new teaser aired during Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City that shows Daryl... being branded by nuns?!

Whatever it is that's happening in the footage, you can watch it in the video above.

"The tone is much different, the [look is] much different. The lighting's different," Reedus previously told ComicBook. "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?'"

The logline, per AMC: "Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan."

In France, Daryl will encounter Isabelle (Cl?mence Po?sy), a Parisian member of a progressive religious group who finds herself confronting her dark past, and displaced Brit Quinn (Adam Nagaitis), a black marketeer and the owner of an underground Paris nightclub. Other survivors to be introduced on the series include Genet (Anne Charrier), Sylvie (Laika Blanc Francard), Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney), Codron (Romain Levi), and Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi).

The latest footage follows the first trailer and poster that surfaced online last week. In it, Daryl says into a walkie talkie: "My name is Daryl Dixon. I come from a place called the Commonwealth. It's in America. I went out looking for something, and all I found was trouble. If I don't make it back, I want them to know I tried. Hell, I'm still trying."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is slated to premiere fall 2023 on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

AMC is taking viewers on a free trip into Dead City. The new Walking Dead spin-off follows enemies Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) into post-apocalyptic New York City, where they must team up to rescue Maggie's son (Logan Kim) from Negan's former Savior underling called The Croat (?eljko Ivanek). After The Walking Dead: Dead City's "Old Acquaintances" premiere aired on June 18th as the most-watched drama series debut of 2023 on cable and the most-watched series premiere for streaming service AMC+, the network has made the entire episode free to watch online on YouTube.

After you've watched the Dead City series premiere in full below, keep reading to find out how to watch The Walking Dead: Dead City online without cable.

How to Watch The Walking Dead: Dead City Online

Episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City are available to stream exclusively on AMC+. The Walking Dead spin-off's first season consists of six episodes, which premiere early for subscribers on Thursdays. Episodes are available to watch online via the AMC website, but you'll need to sign in with a TV provider for access.

You can also purchase the episodes after they air on AMC for $2.99 on digital retailers like Amazon Prime Video and Vudu.

What Time Does Dead City Come On?

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City are typically available to watch after 12 a.m. PT / 3 a.m. ET Thursdays on AMC+. If you're watching with cable on AMC, episodes air Sundays at 9/8c.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Schedule and Episode Guide

Episode 101: "Old Acquaintances" -- (June 15th on AMC+, June 18th on AMC)
Maggie finds Negan, and they travel to Manhattan; a marshal named Armstrong follows Negan; we meet a quiet young girl named Ginny.

Episode 102: "Who's There?" -- (June 22nd on AMC+, June 25th on AMC)
Maggie and Negan encounter native New Yorkers; Armstrong revisits a trauma; Ginny attempts to adapt to change.

Episode 103: "People Are A Resource" -- (June 29th on AMC+, July 2nd on AMC)
Dark instincts reveal themselves as Maggie and Negan form a strategy; Armstrong is tested; Ginny embarks on a daring journey.

Episode 104: "Everybody Wins A Prize" -- (July 6th on AMC+, July 9th on AMC)
Maggie and Negan carry out an attack, but not everything unfolds according to plan; Ginny and Armstrong each make unexpected contact with others.

Episode 105: "Stories We Tell Ourselves" -- (July 13th on AMC+, July 16th on AMC)
Truths are unearthed and motives are revealed as Maggie, Negan, and the others travel further into the city's depths.

Episode 106: "Doma Smo" (Season Finale) -- (July 20th on AMC+, July 23rd on AMC) Tensions between Maggie and Negan come to a head; Ginny's search continues; questions arise around Armstrong's path forward.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

The Sanctuary. Years ago. The Croat (?eljko Ivanek) has broken a girl he says was sent by the Kingdom, disobeying a direct order to let her walk. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Simon (Steven Ogg) see the bloody results of the Croat's "process" -- a process that found the location of a hidden arms cache at the Hilltop. A process in which a girl is strapped to a chair, leaking blood, with wounds to her hands, feet, throat, and head. Simon reminds the "Slavic, psychopathic nutjob" that "kids is a line we do not cross."

The Croat appeals to his buraz, his "brother," Negan, with a smile and a shrug. This is the "too far" that told Negan the Croat was "a rabid dog that needed to be put down." As he told Maggie (Lauren Cohan), "I had one shot. One. I missed. Blew off his ear. The rest of him got away. Haven't seen or heard from him since." Until now.

In the present, Negan, Maggie, Amaia (Karina Ortiz), and Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbotham) group up to ready their attack on the Croat's Sanctuary. No one can find Luther (Michael Anthony) -- who died in a kitchen skirmish with Negan -- so it's figured he bailed. Negan quickly packs Luther's tin of beeswax in his bag.

Negan confesses to Maggie that he's not ready to face the Croat. "It just starts to feel a bit too goddamn familiar. Like, if he starts talkin', it won't be him at all. It's gonna be the echo of some song that I don't wanna hear no more," Negan admits. Maggie is reminded of a time when her son, Hershel, was a baby. A man named Amos lived above them and played the harmonica, even at night. When talking to him didn't work, Maggie confesses, "The next time he was out on a hunting expedition, I snuck into his room. I stole the harmonica, and I went and buried it in the f---ing ground."

With a chuckle, Negan bets Maggie "lost a couple Girl Scout badges for that." She counters: "Yeah, but I'm sure you would've buried it somewhere way worse." He asks if she's seen his matchbook. She lies.

On the streets of New York, Maggie and Negan move out with Amaia and Tommaso's tribe. The sewers are bubbling with methane. As they head into the subway, no one notices Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) trailing behind.

The group treks through the zombie-littered tracks of the long-abandoned subway to reach old Penn Station, which will give them entry to the Croat's new Sanctuary: Madison Square Garden. Making their way through deserted prisoner cells, Maggie desperately checks each room, finding nothing but empty chairs and blood-splattered walls. At the end of the hall, Maggie steps into a fresh trail of blood on the floor.

The prisoner is a young boy, black hair, his head slumped downward. Blood pours from his hands and feet. Negan checks the zombified boy... "It's not him." Maggie breathes. It's not Hershel. It's not her son. But it's someone's kid, so Negan puts him to rest with a knife stab to the brain.

They make a plan: Maggie will steal a car while Negan baits the Croat down to the garage. As Maggie and Negan lure the Croat halfway across the city, Amaia and her people will take out the Burazi. "You get your kid. We kill the psycho. Everybody wins a prize."

Maggie and Negan make their way into the bowels of the arena. Pocketing Negan's matches, she asks if he's figured out how he's going to bait the Croat into showing himself. Negan's confident their plan will work. "We're gonna get your boy back." She's about to tell him about Ginny's dinosaur when she sees it: Luther's can of beeswax in Negan's bag.

He tries to explain, but Maggie rebuffs him. "Don't act like you've never did something you need to explain," Negan tells her, but they don't have time to get into what Negan did to Luther.

Inside the arena, Negan draws the Croat out with a whistle. The Savior whistle. While that's happening, Maggie hotwires a cab inside the garage to make a quick getaway. But when she spots Ginny prowling nearby, Maggie goes after the girl and they wind up on the arena floor, where Amaia's people expected to find the Croat's Burazi.

As Negan reaches the garage, the Croat whistles back. Suddenly, the arena comes alive with lights and the music of his homeland: "Proplakat Ce Zora." Canisters explode at the arena entrances, turning it into a death trap as a horde of walkers flood inside.

There's no way out. Every exit is swarming with the dead. The hunters have become the prey. Wielding melee weapons -- Maggie's chained belt, wrenches, blades -- the survivors fight their way through the horde, but not everyone makes it out alive. People are pulled apart and devoured. As Maggie slices her way through the crowd, a walker grabs Amaia and almost bites her, but she fends it off. Tommaso is surrounded and disappears in the throng of walkers. Back in the garage, Negan evades the Burazi's search, but he's spotted by the Croat.

In the arena, Maggie, Amaia, and the Scavenger Woman (Aixa Kendrick) lock themselves in the cage with Ginny. Using a trick Maggie learned back when clearing the prison fences, the women stab the walkers pressed against the cage. It's not going to hold. The foursome rips the padded panels from the arena cage and falls in tight. They move as one in Spartan formation, making their way through the horde and spearing walker brains as they advance toward an exit. The Scavenging Woman is ripped away and eaten alive, and it's a fate that almost befalls Amaia -- until she's saved by Tommaso, who leads the three survivors out of the arena.

On the rafters above, the Croat catches up to Negan, who is met with an unexpected reaction: Joy. "Negan! My brother! Buraz!" the Croat beams, laughing off his blown-off ear. ("So what? I have another!") He explains that a former Savior, Jerome, told him about the war with the Hilltop, Kingdom, and Alexandria that ended with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) ending Negan's rule. "I should have been there. I can only imagine the damage Simon caused. He never really listened to you," the Croat says. "It's okay you lost the Sanctuary, 'cause I have built a new one. And we'll keep going. We'll build something bigger, stronger! The whole island will become our sanctuary, fuelled by the death in its bowels."

Negan demands to see the Croat's prisoner... and is surprised to see Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) instead of Hershel. The Croat presents Negan's pursuer as a gift before making a gesture to show he's acting "in the spirit of friendship and brotherly love." The Croat chucks Armstrong over the walkway and onto the platform below. Rather than let the lawman fall to his death, Negan helps him up, and they escape together.

Down below, Maggie, Ginny, Amaia, and Tommaso head down into their only route of escape: the sewers that Amaia warned are filled with the dead and methane gas. Tommaso descends a ladder into the sewer, with Amaia and Ginny trailing behind. Maggie nods, signaling to the girl that it's okay. She's right behind them. Maggie blocks the cover behind her as much as she can and goes down the ladder, disappearing into the pitch black darkness.

Elsewhere, Negan and a limping Armstrong hole up in a shoe repair shop. Negan thinks they're in this together, but Armstrong has his gun trained on the fugitive. He cites the codes Negan violated under New Babylon law: "Code 14, Section 2. Intentional killing shall be defined as first degree murder and shall be punishable by supplementary execution. Times five." For the crime of murdering a magistrate and four other men, Negan's going to be put to death without trial. But not without what just might be his last words: "You're a dick."

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

[This story contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 4.] There are some lines you don't cross, and that line was crossed on Sunday's "Everybody Wins a Prize" episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City. Last week, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) told Maggie (Lauren Cohan) about the moment he knew the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) was "a rabid dog that needed to be put down:" when he disobeyed a direct order to release a girl intercepted by the Sanctuary. But the Croat believed her to be a scout for the Kingdom -- intel he obtained just before fatally torturing his prisoner.

Sunday's episode flashes back to the Sanctuary when Negan was the leather jacket-clad, baseball bat-swinging ruler of the Saviors. As he merrily jots down scribbles of "dead pricks" in a notebook, in walks his right-hand man: Simon (Steven Ogg).

"Hey, Neegs," Simon says, "we got a problem." That problem is the Croat, who disobeyed a relayed order to put the kibosh on the drifter they found holed up in a car a few miles out from the Sanctuary. "I'm not gonna say I told you so. I'm not that kind of guy," the mustachioed bulldog of a man says. "But certain folks -- a lot of folks -- are saying it's time to rein his ass in. Invest more authority in, you know, someone not unlike..."

But before Simon can annoint himself second-in-command, the Croat opens the door to his torture chamber to boast about breaking the girl who confessed to being sent by King Ezekiel. "He said to let her walk," Simon barks. "He gave a direct order."

The Croat counters that his "process" takes time. It's a process that once determined the location of a hidden arms cache at the Hilltop, and one that Simon scoffs at: "I would have found that shit."

As Simon mocks the Croatian, calling him a "Slavic, psychopathic nut job," the typically chatty Negan lets Simon do the talking. He can only hang his head at the sight of the blood-dripping girl bound to a chair by ropes. Simon closes in. "Kids -- KIDS! -- is a line we do not cross," he growls. "We all know that."

It's a line that Simon would cross on The Walking Dead: he ordered the massacres of the Scavengers and any Oceanside male above the age of 10. Years later, during the war with the Kingdom, Hilltop, and Alexandria, Negan's once-loyal subordinate had become increasingly insubordinate. After his attempted coup to depose Negan as leader of the Saviors, Negan strangled Simon and chained his zombified body to the fence outside the Sanctuary.

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Thursdays on AMC+ and Sundays on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

The ComicBook Nation Crew reveals the best, worst, and most surprising content (movies, TV, games, comics) of 2023 so far, as we reach the mid-year point! PLUS, we reveal our early reaction to Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, recap the new episode of Secret Invasion, and talk about the biggest comics of the week!

Mission: Impossible 7 Reactions

Host Kofi Outlaw had the following to say about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One:

After rewatching multiple installments I can say that #MissionImpossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 falls somewhere in the middle of the franchise for me. Too overstuffed with characters, and too simplistic in narrative turns - despite gripping tension & some truly awesome stunts.

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Only six episodes remain of Fear the Walking Dead. When the eighth and final season of the Walking Dead spin-off picks back up this fall for its last episodes, there will be returns. There will be reunions. And there will be resurrections. The "All I See Is Red" midseason finale ended with Morgan Jones (Lennie James) exiting the series just as Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) -- who appeared to be killed off in season 3 -- returned from the grave. That's not all. The first footage from the final episodes reunited Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), who had been absent for the first half of the final season. In the end, Fear is going back to the beginning.

"It's such a gigantic task to think about bringing all these stories, all these character journeys, not just to a conclusion, but also bringing them full circle," showrunner Ian Goldberg said on AMC's Inside Fear the Walking Dead Final Season Part 1 special. "When we started to think about, 'Where do we want these characters to end up?' It led to the question of, 'Where did they start?'"

Added showrunner Andrew Chambliss, "We wanted to look back at these characters from their very beginnings on this show and look at who they were back then, and who they were now, and we can see how far they've come."

That includes Madison, who is coming to terms with the loss of her children, Nick (Frank Dillane) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey); Strand, who has been "drastically reinvented" and is seemingly going by the name "Anton"; Daniel Salazar (Rub?n Blades), who has found new purpose as the commander of a parent army; and grieving parents Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista), who found their way back to each other, only to separate over the death of their son, Finch.

In the back half of the final season of Fear the Walking Dead, Goldberg said each of the characters will "have to look back in order to look forward."

"The theme that kept coming to the front of our minds was just this idea of family. And it all started with Madison Clark," added Chambliss. "She was this matriarch at the beginning of the apocalypse who always wanted to protect her kids, who wanted to create a world where they could be safe. Who wanted to give them something that really didn't exist anymore."

He continued: "It all kind of boils down to the story -- the story we want to tell, the story that we think will bring together all the themes, all the characters, everyone's stories in a way that will feel satisfying. And also feel like it has some real finality to it."

Fear the Walking Dead season 8 returns this fall on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

The Walking Dead spin-off reuniting Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) has confirmed its title with an official new logo. Below is the title treatment for The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne, which appears on the show's landing page on AMC+. (The working title The Walking Dead: Summit used during production was just that: a working title.) The stylized font is reminiscent of a military-style stencil, a design that forewarns of the CRM -- the Civic Republic Military -- the shadowy organization that years ago shuttled Rick away from The Walking Dead aboard a helicopter.

AMC's streaming service also unveiled a new, shorter synopsis: "The love story of Rick Grimes and Michonne is changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. Can they find each other and who they were in a situation unlike any they've ever known?"

The last time Michonne saw Rick, she watched as he seemingly sacrificed by blowing up a bridge to save his family and friends from a walker horde. Unbeknownst to her, human trafficker Jadis/Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) rescued Rick -- and traded him to the Civic Republic, the hidden and fortified city of post-apocalyptic Philadelphia. Years passed by the time Michonne learned Rick survived, setting off to find him and bring him home to their children, Judith (Cailey Fleming) and Rick "RJ" Grimes Jr. (Antony Azor).

In a coda sequence ending The Walking Dead's "Rest in Peace" series finale, a CRM helicopter foiled Rick's attempted escape from the Republic's capital city, where he's been put to work clearing zombies at a CRM decontamination center. Elsewhere, the katana-wielding Michonne suited up in samurai-like armor and saddled a horse she rode into a canyon filled with walkers.

The Walking Dead Universe chief content officer Scott M. Gimple, who serves as series creator and showrunner, has described Rick & Michonne as "an epic and insane love story" taking place in a location never before seen in TWDU.

"These are two people that have been separated for a very long time. They've lived whole other existences and they have to find themselves again, let alone each other. It's hopefully going to be mind-blowing," Gimple teased on Talking Dead. "We see this incredible power couple, but we also see that Red Machete Rick. We see that Michonne who taught a thing or two to the Governor. [The series] kind of goes coast to coast that way between the intimate and the epic and the insane."

Put simply: If you're screwing with the Rick who slaughtered the Terminus cannibals and the Michonne who mangled the Governor, you're screwing with the wrong people.

The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne is slated to premiere in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Dying Light 2 developer Techland has announced a new crossover event centered on The Walking Dead. Unfortunately, no actual information has been revealed about the event, when it will take place, or what it might entail. As of this writing, the only thing that we do know is that players will have to "survive, scavenge, and slay the undead like never before." A promotional image showing a grave marker for Alberto was shared via the game's Twitter account, and features artwork in a style inspired by the comic art of Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard.

The promotional image from Techland and Skybound Games can be found below.

Sometimes video game crossovers don't make a lot of sense, but Dying Light 2 and The Walking Dead seems like a perfect fit! Both franchises revolve around the zombie apocalypse, and the human monsters that are sometimes scarier. There are a lot of cool ways that the game could offer content based on either The Walking Dead live-action shows, or the comics that inspired them, but there's simply no way of knowing what to expect just yet. Hopefully Techland and Skybound Games won't keep fans waiting too long on additional details!

Dying Light 2: Stay Human released last year on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms. The survival horror sequel takes place more than two decades after the original Dying Light, and puts players in the role of new protagonist Aiden Caldwell. While combat plays a big role in the game, so does parkour, which players will use to navigate the open-world city of Villedor. The Dying Light games have earned themselves a passionate audience over the last eight years, and it already seems like a lot of those fans are excited to see what this new crossover has to offer. For fans of The Walking Dead that have never experience the game or its predecessor, the event could be the perfect excuse to do just that!

Are you excited to learn more about this Dying Light 2 crossover? What would you like to see from the event? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon deliberately doesn't look like The Walking Dead. As shown by the first footage from the spin-off, "The tone is much different, the [look is] much different. The lighting's different," star Norman Reedus previously told ComicBook. "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." If AMC's Walking Dead spin-off set in post-apocalyptic France doesn't look or sound anything like The Walking Dead, it's because there's new blood in the writers' room assembled by executive producer and showrunner David Zabel.

The ER veteran joined the NBC series in its eighth season as an executive story writer before becoming executive producer and showrunner for seasons 11--15 of the medical drama. Zabel, whose television writing credits include episodes of JAG, Star Trek: Voyager, and Dark Angel, also developed the short-lived ABC drama Lucky 7 with Jason Richman and co-created with Lisa Q. Wolfinger the Civil War-set medical drama Mercy Street for PBS.

A listing on the Writers Guild of America database reveals the five writers who penned the six-episode first season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, including Zabel, who penned the pilot episode. The newcomers to the Walking Dead Universe are Zabel's Lucky 7 and Mercy Street collaborator Richman, ER and Lucky 7 story editor Shannon Goss, Laura Snow, and French writer Coline Abert.

• Episode 1 is written by Zabel, whose credits include the ABC affair drama Betrayal, crime-drama Detroit 1-8-7, and crime-drama Stumptown
• Episode 2 is co-written by Zabel & Richman, who created the Cobie Smulders-led Stumptown and co-created Lucky 7 with Zabel. Along with episodes of Detroit 1-8-7 and Mercy Street, Richman wrote the 2008 films Swing Vote and Bangkok Dangerous
  
• Episode 3 is scripted by Coline Abert, writer of the French romantic dramedy series Plus belle la vie, the French political thriller series The Bureau, and the supernatural drama Les Revenants (The Returned). Most recently, Abert penned the "Like Angels Put in Hell by God" episode of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire for AMC
• Episode 4 is written by Shannon Goss, a television veteran whose credits include episodes of ER, Harry's Law, Lucky 7, ABC drama Revenge, Reign, STARZ' Outlander, and AMC's supernatural horror anthology series The Terror
• Episode 5 is written by Zabel & Richman
• Episode 6 is penned by Richman & Laura Snow, a staff writer on NBC's short-lived drama Ordinary Joe, which chronicled one man's three parallel lives

The official logline: "Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan."

Former Walking Dead showrunners and executive producers Scott M. Gimple and Angela Kang developed the series, originally planned as the Daryl & Carol spin-off starring Reedus and Melissa McBride. After Kang and McBride both exited the spin-off in April 2022, it was reworked to focus on Daryl being marooned in Europe. (McBride has since been spotted filming with Reedus in France.)

Gimple and Kang serve as executive producers on Daryl Dixon, alongside Zabel, longtime Walking Dead director-producer-makeup artist Greg Nicotero, Brian Bockrath (Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Dead City), and Daniel Percival (The Man in the High Castle, Hot Zone).

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is slated to premiere this fall on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

[This story contains spoilers from The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1 Episode 3, "People Are a Resource."] "I ain't goin' anywhere." That's what a defiant Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) said when confronted by Luther (Michael Anthony) in Sunday's "People Are a Resource" episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City. Luther found the wanted poster describing Negan as "antisocial, prone to extreme violence, with above-average intelligence and charisma" -- and that he's not to be trusted. But with Negan on a mission to save Maggie's (Lauren Cohan) son from the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) -- an exchange that gives his ward Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) shelter at Maggie's home at The Bricks -- Negan refused to leave.

"I really hope this doesn't turn into something it doesn't need to," Negan told Luther, standing his ground against the burly ally of native New Yorkers Amaia (Karina Ortiz) and Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbotham). But when Luther cornered him in a kitchen, Negan fought him off with a frying pan and then a cheese grater that he scraped across Luther's face. The fight ended with Luther stumbling backward and being impaled on a pipe, and Negan pressing his victim's head to finish him off.

"The face-grating killed me," Morgan told EW. "I was like, 'Really? I'm going to get him with a face-grater?' But this is a guy that's like 6-foot-6, and 200-some-odd-pounds of muscle. You know, Negan is not that guy. But that survival instinct kicks in with 'What can I use to, to fight back?' A cheese grater happened to be at hand, and that gets that guy off of him."

Like Negan's bloody knock-knock joke in last week's "Who's There?" episode, Negan's violence was in response to danger. As Morgan pointed out, Negan attempted to talk his way out of the fight before going "there."

"There's that whole dance that happens before the cheese grater where I'm trying to step around him. And I warn him a good three, four times -- 'Look, I don't want it to go here. It doesn't have to go here. Let's not take it there.' And he is like, 'It's going there,'" Morgan said. "So Negan again is trying to be that guy that we have known the last couple years and do the right thing. But when it comes down to it, and it's a matter of survival. Negan is Negan, and if it's means pushing him down on that pipe that's coming out of the ground and giving a little smile, there he is!"

The villainous Negan who taunted and tormented his enemies on The Walking Dead is "back, in a way," added Morgan. "I think people were wondering if it was a good idea or not to let that Negan come out again. And I always have been like, 'We have to. It's so important. It's who this character is, and we can't take that away from him.'"

Morgan explained: "If he wants to live to see tomorrow, and if he wants to actually save Hershel and get to the Croat, he knows what he has to do. A lot of that is putting on that show, and that show is going to be violent and it's going to be ugly, but it'll make y'all laugh because he's always got something funny to say."

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Thursdays on AMC+ and Sundays on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

You've seen The Walking Dead in the woods. You've seen The Walking Dead in New York City. But you haven't seen The Walking Dead in France. That's where a lone Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) washes ashore in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, the upcoming spin-off that finds the American roaming as a stranger in a strange land. AMC already released first-look footage showing how Daryl ends up in Europe, and now a new trailer and poster has surfaced on the AMC+ platform.

The lengthier trailer, which you can watch above, shows Daryl making his way through the French countryside and villages reclaimed by life and death alike. "My name is Daryl Dixon. I come from a place called the Commonwealth. It's in America," Daryl says into a walkie talkie, wandering through the streets of post-apocalyptic Marseille, France. "I went out looking for something, and all I found was trouble. If I don't make it back, I want them to know I tried. Hell, I'm still trying."

The official logline: "Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan."

"This is probably the closest to a standalone show you will ever get," franchise veteran director-producer Greg Nicotero told EW. "The goal isn't just to see Daryl in exotic and new locations, but to explore a wholly different world."

After 11 seasons and 177 episodes of The Walking Dead, new show Daryl Dixon is "definitely not more of the same," Nicotero said. "Our show introduces new characters, new themes, and is an exciting extension of the genre that will delight people who love this kind of storytelling and crave more."

Nicotero previously told ComicBook that the show transporting Reedus' character overseas "embraces a Stranger In a Strange Land kind of scenario, where we're exploring post-apocalyptic Europe through the eyes of Daryl Dixon," referring to Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 novel about a human raised on Mars who struggles to understand customs on an alien world: Earth.

"I got to say, we've had a great time. It really just is a different animal," Nicotero told ComicBook. "And I even was sort of surprised, myself, standing on set and going, 'I've been on Walking Dead for 12 years and here we are.' But it feels fresh and it feels new. And David Zabel, our showrunner, has been an absolute joy to collaborate with. And it's been really fun."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres this fall on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

"People are a resource" is a philosophy that Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) expressed on The Walking Dead. And it's something that the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) has taken literally on The Walking Dead: Dead City. After Negan revealed his history with the psychopathic Savior underling on last week's episode, Sunday's "People Are a Resource" explained how the Croat has embraced the mantra at the new Sanctuary: a zombie-swarmed Madison Square Garden. "Death is no end. It is our fuel," the Croat says. "Because people are a resource!"

We open on a flashback to Negan and Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), who hasn't said a word since her father's death. Negan has spent months trying to find her a safe place -- and she's trying to find her stuffed dinosaur. In the present, Ginny tracks her father figure to Manhattan, where Negan and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) have fallen in with native New Yorkers Amaia (Karina Ortiz), Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbotham), and Luther (Michael Anthony).

They've been surviving in the city since the military bombed the bridges and quarantined the island during Operation Cobalt at the onset of the zombie outbreak. "We watched them blow up the bridges. The tunnels. Leaving us in this death trap," Amaia recalls. Then the Croat showed up with his Burazi -- his brotherhood -- to recruit people and offer them protection. Or his "paranoid, crazy version of that. Kill or be killed." But Amaia and Tommaso "don't take no orders from no bridge-and-tunnel nutcase, so now he tries to kill us. Steal from us. Catch and torture us so he can learn how to kill and steal some more." Only one of them ever escaped alive: Tommaso.

It's discouraging for Maggie, whose son, Hershel (Logan Kim), has been kidnapped by the Croat. As Maggie excuses herself to breathe down sobs in private, Negan assures Amaia and Tommaso: "She's tougher than she looks, and she looks tough as shit."

She'll need to be. To get to the Croat, they'll have to get through his walker moat that surrounds his "sanctuary." A turkey parade float lures the "fleshies" to Madison Square Garden, and according to Luther, there's no way inside the arena. Maggie suggests the sewers, but Amaia explains that the Army "shoved in all the fleshies they killed till they got turned into fleshies too. Sealed it up nice and tight." Negan and Maggie figure that if someone broke out, then there's a way back in.

Tommaso is hesitant to return, but Amaia wants vengeance for the Croat's Burazi invading their home and slaughtering their people. It triggers d?j? vu for Negan, who recalls a fella down south who showed up out of nowhere twelve, fifteen years ago:

"Everybody flocked to him because he knew what they needed, what they wanted. Protection. Sanctuary. So we built a badass fortress. Formed an army out of psychopaths. And he forced people to join. And if they didn't? The hammer came down. Now soon enough, the people, they got fed up with it, so they got together. And they decided it was time to take that hammer back."

"It worked," Maggie says. Negan smirks: "Hell yeah, it worked."

Tommaso recalls making a break for it by following the framework of the old Penn Station, eventually making his way through the tunnels to freedom. The group reverse engineers a prison break to reach the cells, but Negan figures the Croat would have moved prisoners off-site after Tommaso's escape. "It's what he would've done. He and the Croat know each other. They go back. Way back," Maggie reveals. "He knows how he thinks." Negan took a shot at the Croat and blew his ear off, so it's decided he'll bait him and lure him out of the arena. Once they get him to divulge Hershel's location, they'll kill the Croat. The rest of them will get the jump on the Burazi, while Maggie and Negan finish off the Croat: "An eye for an eye," Negan says. "A dick for an ear."

Luther isn't convinced Negan can bait the Croat into showing himself. He rebuffed Negan's ask to bum some beeswax for his cut hands, and he's unapologetically blunt about being unwilling to die to save a kid who "is already dead," Luther tells Maggie. "I think you know that."

Inside the arena, the Croat has New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) handcuffed to a rail. The Croat sits down to eat Pa?ticada, a Croatian braised beef dish, as he explains how the arena enjoys such luxuries as lights, heating, electricity, drink, and food.

The Croat worked in alternative energy. When he arrived in New York, he deduced the most abundant natural resource on the island: death. "The sewers are full of it. As the bodies break down, they produce methane, and because the intermolecular forces are weak, the gas can be pressurized into a liquid fuel at regular temperatures." Using (dead) people as a resource, the Croat has built a sanctuary.

Recoiling at the sight of a maggot in his rotting meat, the Croat doles out the waiter's punishment: by placing a handcuff key in his mouth. Making him swallow. And then fatally bludgeoning him before throwing the waiter's body to the arena floor below.

Outside, Maggie removes a modest tin box from her bag. Inside are trinkets and treasures from a lifetime ago: A photo of the Greene family on the farm. Her father, Hershel Greene. Her sister, Beth. A picture of Maggie and her baby son. And then Hershel's watch - the one he passed down to her husband. Tucked inside is a drawing of Glenn. Negan interrupts to give Maggie a baseball cap he found inside a tourist shop. He remembered Hershel used to wear one like it, so he thought Maggie could give her son the hat when she sees him again.

Then Negan does something even more unexpected: he shuts up and listens. He listens as Maggie recounts her strained relationship with her son -- "I could have said 'left' and he'd go right just to spite me" -- and how they argued before he was taken. "I screwed up so many ways before then," she confesses, choking out the words. "Fumbling through, doing it by ourself... there weren't a lot of people that meant anything to me in this world. But there were enough. And whatever's left of all of them is inside this box."

It's Negan's turn to open up. A few years ago, he was living with his wife, Annie, and their son, Joshua, in a quaint cabin outside of New Babylon. When Annie went into town to do some trading, five men robbed and beat her. Negan tracked the men to some shit drinking hole and killed them in a rage, making him a wanted man. The punishment for murdering a magistrate and four other men under Code 14 Section 2 of New Babylon Law? Being dangled upside down and sawed in half, length-wise, from the groin to the head -- very, very slowly.

"After that, we were on the run, and it was very hard for Annie. So I put 'em on a wagon train to Missouri, and I said I'd be right behind 'em," says Negan. "I stayed. I think about them every single day. I hope to god they are okay, and maybe I have no right in hoping that. I don't know, Maggie. I mean, what else do we have? Besides hope."

She softens. "I thought you knew how to shut up." Negan chuckles, and Maggie takes Hershel's cap.

On the street, Ginny watches as a Scavenger Woman (Aixa Kendrick) collects her dropped dino doll. At the arena, the Burazi huff methane from a tank and mask attachments. Armstrong is forced to inhale the methane before being shoved into a caged ring with the zombified waiter. The rowdy Burazi hoot and holler at the spectacle of the cage match as Armstrong overcomes the effects of the gas, maneuvering himself into a position to decapitate the walker waiter and collect his prize -- the handcuff key deep in his guts.

Elsewhere, the Scavenger Woman meets up with Amaia and Tommaso. Maggie recognizes Ginny's stuffed dinosaur among her collection, and tells the scavenger that she knows a little girl who likes things like that. The woman hands the doll to Maggie with a smile.

Back at the arena, the Croat is impressed with Armstrong's "show." He remembers how his family -- his wife, Mia, their daughters Nika and Hana, and his son, Filip -- had become "a meal for another starving family. I was too distraught to even think of killing myself, and by the time that would've occurred to me, I had already found the man who would become my new family and teach me how to protect the things that matter." Things like the note that Armstrong has hidden in his boot.

The Croat unfurls the note and reads it aloud: "Pearlie, I don't know if you'll even read this. I feel dumb it took me so long to realize you all changed your numbers. I wonder what those other people thought when they heard my messages. I've been trying so damn hard, but it's too much for me. I'm too weak, and I can't do it by myself. I need help. Please help me. Please come find me. I don't like it where I am, and I just want to come home--" He's cut off. Armstrong says he's alone on the island, hunting a wanted man: "His name is Negan."

At the safehouse, Negan rummages through the kitchen and pockets a grater. He tries to smooth things over with Luther, but the big guy confronts him with the wanted poster that Negan proudly pocketed because of its flattering likeness. The poster describes Negan as being antisocial, prone to extreme violence, with above-average intelligence and charisma -- and instructs anyone with information about the fugitive to notify any office of the New Babylon Marshals.

Negan tries to talk his way out of a fight, but like a cornered rat, he scurries and spars with the brawny man who wraps him in a crushing bear hug. With a guttural roar of anguish, Negan goes for the only melee weapon he can reach: the grater. Negan drags the metal shredder across Luther's face, causing him to stumble backward, and the fight ends when Luther is accidentally impaled by a pipe to the back of the head.

In an alley, Maggie holds Ginny's dinosaur. She puts the stuffed treasure in a bin and palms a match. She doesn't see Ginny watching from behind a car in the dark. Ginny remembers that day with Negan in the woods, when he found and returned her doll. She remembers him whistling two tones, the whistle that his cancer-stricken wife, Lucille, used when she was sick and couldn't get out of bed. "It didn't matter what I was doing or where I was. I came running. You do that, and I'm not around, I will be there. Deal?" She nods. "Talk is cheap anyway, kid. Believe me, I oughta know. It doesn't matter what people say." Ginny falls into a hug. He assures her: "It only matters what they do."

Ginny watches Maggie light the match.

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

[This story contains spoilers from The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1 Episode 3, "People Are a Resource."] When last we saw Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) on The Walking Dead series finale, he was expecting his first child with his wife Annie (Medina Senghore). Years passed by the time he reunited with Maggie (Lauren Cohan) on The Walking Dead: Dead City. It was revealed that not only is Negan a wanted man for murdering a New Babylon magistrate and four other men, but the fugitive is on the run with a young ward named Ginny (Mahina Napoleon). Maggie asked Negan the burning question: "Where's Annie and your kid?"

What happened to Annie? Is Negan's family dead or alive? We got our answer during Sunday's "People Are a Resource" episode, where Negan opened up to Maggie about Annie's fate.

It's revealed that Negan has a son, named Joshua. Though Negan deflected from answering Maggie's question before, it turns out that Joshua and Annie are alive and in hiding while New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) pursues Negan for killing five men. (For the crime of aiding and abetting the fugitive, Armstrong summarily executed the owner of the motel where Negan holed up doing "groaner work": killing walkers.)

Negan told Maggie his family lived in a cabin outside of New Babylon when Annie went into town for trading. But when she didn't return by nightfall, Negan went out looking, only to find his wife had been beaten and robbed. "She begged me not to do something stupid. The hell, you know me," Negan confessed. "I found 'em. All five of 'em." Negan killed the five men in an act of vengeance and fled the capital city with Annie and Joshua in tow. But being on the run was hard for Annie, so Negan put his wife and child on a wagon train to Missouri. "I said I'd be right behind 'em," Negan explained. "I stayed."

As for what's facing Negan should Armstrong catch up with him? According to the marshal citing New Babylon law Code 14, Section 2, Negan will be executed: "For what this man has done, he'll be dangled upside down and sawed in half lengthwise from the groin to the head -- very, very slowly."

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.