EXCLUSIVE: The Walking Dead spinoffs Daryl Dixon and The Ones Who Live and Interview with the Vampire are set to resume production after AMC Networks struck agreements with SAG-AFTRA.
The three shows are part of interim agreements with the Breaking Bad broadcaster that will allow filming to resume on the three high-profile series.
It’s understood that these agreements are specific to these three shows, rather than a blanket agreement between the company and the guild. AMC Networks, which produces the shows via AMC Studios, confirmed the agreements with Deadline, but didn’t comment further.
AMC Networks is what’s known as an authorized company with regards to the AMPTP but is not among the studios involved in the negotiations.
The deal revealed Thursday marks the most significant television properties to strike such an agreement since the actors walked out. Other series on the interim agreement list include faith series The Chosen; Apple TV+’s Tehran, which was handed an agreement due to its international nature; and Hal and Harper, an indie series from Cha Cha Real Smooth filmmaker and star Cooper Raiff starring Lili Reinhart and Mark Ruffalo.
Deadline understands that Interview with the Vampire will resume filming its second season in Prague, while The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will film its second season in Europe. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, which stars Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira reprising their roles as Rick and Michonne, has work left to do in post-production including ADR.
AMC Networks CEO Kristin Dolan said earlier this month that the writers and actors strikes wouldn’t begin to threaten the company’s programming supply until “well into 2024.”
“We greatly value the work of our creative partners and hope these disputes can be resolved as quickly and fairly as possible,” Dolan said. “In the short term, the reality for AMC Networks is that we have a pipeline of finished shows that will allow us to continue to serve our viewers across all of our platforms for the remainder of this year and well into 2024,” she said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will launch its first season September 10. It stars Norman Reedus after his character 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, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan.
In addition to Reedus, the series stars Clémence Poésy, Adam Nagaitis, Anne Charrier, Eriq Ebouaney, Laika Blanc Francard, Romain Levi and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi and is executive produced by Scott M. Gimple, showrunner David Zabel, Reedus, Greg Nicotero, Angela Kang, Brian Bockrath and Daniel Percival.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is the fifth spinoff in the TWD universe and is composed of six episodes.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live will wrap up the story arcs for the Rick Grimes and Michonne characters. The series presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance, an unstoppable power and 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?
The spinoff is slated to premiere in 2024.
Gimple, Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead Universe, serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth and Bockrath.
Meanwhile, Interview with the Vampire paused production on Season 2 in July.
Rolin Jones’ gothic horror TV series was filming mainly in Prague since April and stars Brits Assad Zaman, Jacob Anderson and Delainey Hayles, Australia’s Sam Reid, along with Americans such as Eric Bogosian.
Based on the 1976 novel by Anne Rice, which spawned a 1994 movie starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, the series follows the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Anderson) who recounts his life with his maker Lestat de Lioncourt and teenage vampire Claudia to veteran journalist Daniel Molloy, accompanied by ancient vampire Armand.
The show was renewed ahead of its premiere in October last year. Gran Via Productions, Dwight Street Book Club and AMC Studios are producers.
