The Walking Dead: Normal Reedus reveals original plans for Carol-Daryl spinoff

Carol and Daryl are getting their own Walking Dead spinoff! It’s been in the works for a while, but at one point it was going in a very different direction.

The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus (Daryl), one of the longest-serving cast members on the original show, will soon be part of a spinoff alongside Melissa McBride (Carol). It’s just one of many spinoffs coming after the flagship series ends with season 11; we’ve also got an anthology series called Tales of the Walking Dead and movies about Rick Grimes, not to mention the continuation of shows like Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Even without the main show, that’s still a lot of zombies!

According to Reedus, the Daryl-Carol spinoff has been talked about since the season 9 finale. “[Showrunner Angela Kang] and I started talking about it during the episode [Greg Nicotero] directed with the snow,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I remember that we started talking about it then. I was pitching these ideas, ’cause it was kind of like ‘After eight years really, where do you see this show going?’ And I had an idea and I kind of threw it out there and we talked about it a lot.”

It sounds like both he and Melissa McBride were both super excited about the prospect of having a spinoff together. They even created a Spotify playlist full of songs they felt matched the mood of the show. Sadly, we do not know what tracks were on it, but I really want to know.

At the time, Reedus did not know when (or if) the main show would be coming to an end. Originally, he was thinking the Carol-and-Daryl show would run alongside The Walking Dead proper. “The whole thing was we would take off and we’d come back and check in and we would take off,”  he explained.

"So I didn’t know that was going to happen. And to be honest, I was hoping that would never happen because, you know, that’s the mothership. I’m scared to leave the mothership. That’s scary new ground. I mean, I’m excited for the spin-off and I’m excited for the type of show it will be, but I didn’t see that coming that. That kind of came out of nowhere."

The Walking Dead has been dropping hints to the Daryl-Carol spinoff for a while. Specifically, in the season 10 premiere, they bring up New Mexico as somewhere they could escape. And they chat about it again in the season 10 finale. Could this be where the spinoff is heading?

Well, we don’t know, but Norman Reedus has picked up on the subtle hints. “When I read that in that first episode of that season, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s from the thing we talked about!'”

As ever with The Walking Dead, we’re looking into the future with very few details. The Daryl-Carol show won’t hit out screens until at least 2022. Until then, we still have The Walking Dead season 11, Fear the Walking Dead, and World Beyond to watch!

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