Despite The Walking Dead coming to an end in late 2022 with an emotional series finale after eleven seasons, the world of AMC's zombie apocalypse is continuing, and the Daryl Dixon spinoff just got some good news well before it will even debut. The premiere date announcement came along with some fresh details about what The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon TV show will involve, and they're enough to finally get me hyped for Norman Reedus' return to the world of the zombie apocalypse.
AMC revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will debut on Sunday, September 10 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC and streaming service AMC+, meaning that it will inherit The Walking Dead's former time slot. The premiere date announcement was accompanied by the news that Norman Reedus' spinoff has already been renewed for a second season in a big show of faith from the network. After all, fans still have nearly two months before seeing the first episode! So, why is this making me excited, despite all the earlier reveals about the new set of adventures set in France?
Well, as a former diehard The Walking Dead fan who fell off the zombie apocalypse wagon in the later seasons and wasn't particularly invested in the idea of the franchise spinning off in several directions following the series finale, a premiere date and renewal wouldn't have been enough to get me psyched for a show about Daryl Dixon in France. Sure, the premise of good old Daryl washing up on the shores of Europe is certainly something that the original series never did, but it also seemed random enough to me (even with the reveal of his new form of transportation) that it felt like just an excuse to keep fan favorite Daryl Dixon in the franchise.
No, the news that finally has me looking forward to seeing Norman Reedus back in the grime and gruesomeness of the zombie apocalypse came via a statement from Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, who also confirmed a second season for Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's The Walking Dead: Dead City. McDermott said:
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.
Knowing that the show will be set in France seemed odd to me, but Dan McDermott mentioning a renewal along with iconic places like Notre Dame and Pont du Gard being turned into "an apocalyptic landscape" officially has me curious to see what's ahead for Daryl Dixon. Not only does that sound pretty epic, but it makes me think back to the very beginning of the original series, and that's never a bad thing.
Is there any more iconic shot from The Walking Dead than Rick Grimes riding a horse along an abandoned freeway into Atlanta? The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon potentially doing something similar with famous sites in France could show off the scale of the zombie apocalypse in a similarly iconic way. I think I can suspend my disbelief about Daryl in France now, and that says a lot coming from somebody who struggled to suspend my disbelief for years that he never cut his hair to get it out of his eyes in the original show.
You can check out The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon when it arrives on AMC and AMC+ on September 10 in the 2023 TV schedule. Is some of my excitement tied to the fact that the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA strike mean that new scripted content will be harder to find than usual this fall? Perhaps, but I'm finally ready to pencil the show into my calendar. You can also catch the Season 1 finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City on Sunday, July 23.
