From the end of ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ to the return of Rick and Michonne, here’s what you need to know about the state of AMC’s zombie apocalypse.
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The Walking Dead is dead. Long live The Walking Dead!
Despite the flagship series airing its final episode in November 2022, the Walking Dead franchise remains alive and well in the form of a litany of different spinoff shows. There are at least four versions of The Walking Dead in some form of active status (with one of those dramas about to end), while word persists there are other entries in the series based on Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s award-winning comic books still in the works. For now, here’s the lineup of what’s on right now, what’s coming up, and what’s been announced.
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‘Fear the Walking Dead’: The Final Season
Image Credit: Lauren “Lo” Smith/AMC After eight seasons, the Walking Dead franchise’s first spinoff begins the end of its run on Oct. 22, with six final episodes to bring Fear the Walking Dead to a close. The first half of season eight saw the departure of Morgan Jones, played by franchise veteran Lennie James across both Fear and the flagship Walking Dead. With his story concluded, the final six Fear installments stand ready to end the story of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), the series’ original protagonist, seemingly killed off in season four, only to return at the end of season seven.
In these final episodes, Madison takes the spotlight, with an opportunity to close the curtain on the character from co-creator and original Fear showrunner Dave Erickson’s first three seasons: Madison; daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), whose fate remains in flux after departing the series in season seven); Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades), one of Madison’s only remaining day one allies; and Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), conspicuously absent in the final run thus far, following a hard pivot toward supervillain status in season seven.
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‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’
Image Credit: Gene Page/AMC Alternately known as The Walking Dead: TOWeL (if not by everyone, certainly by myself and my Walking Dead podcast colleagues), The Ones Who Live centers the long-awaited reunion between two of the most pivotal players in the entire franchise: Rick Grimes and Michonne, the long-lost lovers played by Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira. Originally designed as a series of feature films, Rick and Michonne’s story was retooled for a limited series format, set to air in February 2024.
Set after Michonne’s season 10 decision to leave her group and find her presumed-dead husband Rick, The Ones Who Live takes its name from an adage the central characters used to keep each other afloat during the darkest days of The Walking Dead. They’ll have their work cut out for them in their own limited series, with the arrival of television veteran Terry O’Quinn stepping in as an antagonist named Beale. Additionally, Pollyanna McIntosh returns as Jadis, the character who saved Rick’s life and exited him from the show back in season nine; in returning for The Ones Who Live, Jadis becomes one of only three main characters who has appeared in three different Walking Dead spinoffs, having also appeared in The Walking Dead: World Beyond. The other character she ties with? None other than Rick himself, as well as the co-star of another active Walking Dead series…
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‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ and ‘The Book of Carol’
Image Credit: Jace Downs/AMC Originally, the Norman Reedus-led spinoff The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was supposed to co-star Melissa McBride as Carol, the veritable Sarah Connor of the Walking Dead universe. Instead, McBride took time away from the world of the walkers, sitting out of the first season of Daryl Dixon, save for cameo contributions. Now, not only is she coming back for season two, she’s bringing her very own name to the title, as AMC officially announced the series’ second year premiering under the subtitle, The Book of Carol.
The first season of Daryl Dixon followed — you guessed it — Daryl Dixon, venturing from America all the way to France. The series leaned into Parisian iconography, including a fight scene set beside the Eiffel Tower, as well as a smart use of the Paris Catacombs to delineate this corner of the zombie apocalypse from its American counterpart. Season two is set to see Carol enter the mix, ostensibly to bring Daryl home, but more likely to wind up on myriad European jaunts with her post-apocalypse bestie. (They have friendship bracelets. It’s cute!) The second season has been filming in Europe as part of an agreement between the AMC and SAG-AFTRA, and is set to air in 2024.
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‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2
Image Credit: Peter Kramer/AMC AMC took a big swing with its first major Walking Dead successor. Okay, could have phrased that better, considering it’s the show starring baseball bat-wielding bad guy (reformed) Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and “The Widow” Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan). Archenemies turned reluctant allies, the first season of The Walking Dead: Dead City focused on Negan and Maggie journeying across Manhattan in a bid to save Maggie’s son from a deranged enemy known as The Croat (Zeljko Ivanek, adding yet another scenery-chewing villain to his impressive rolodex).
Dead City was proof of concept that more life existed within the Walking Dead universe following the flagship’s ending. Not only did the drastic change of location serve the series well (even if native New Yorkers could tell just how much was shot across the Hudson River in New Jersey), but the resetting of two familiar faces with ancient history between them proved a worthy way into a new story with old roots. The series was renewed for a second season in July 2023, with no official news on filming or a premiere date yet set.
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‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ and ‘More Tales From the Walking Dead Universe’
Image Credit: Curtis Bonds Baker/AMC Anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead offered some of the best stories set within AMC’s zombie universe in years. But the six standalone episodes, airing from August through September 2022, have yet to receive any follow-up action. With that said, AMC has announced a series of shorts tentatively (and kind of amazingly) titled More Tales From the Walking Dead Universe, effectively borrowing the same premise (and most of the same title) as Tales. There’s currently no word on when to expect these shorts, but if one of these episodes doesn’t involve the alternate Walking Dead universe in which Rick Grimes gets a lightsaber and battles aliens (true story), what are we even doing here?
