AMC announces new Walking Dead spinoff, spoils who survives the finale

AMC is currently airing the eleventh and final season of The Walking Dead, but it doesn’t feel like things are winding down. That’s because the network has a ton of spinoffs in development, including an anthology series called Tales of the Walking Dead, a series of Rick Grimes movies and even a Walking Dead comedy. The long-running zombie series has been AMC’s cash cow for years, and they are far from done milking it.

Which brings us to today. AMC has announced yet another spinoff, and since its very existence could be considered a SPOILER, we’ll give you one chance to back out now.

Maggie and Negan team up for The Walking Dead spinoff Isle of the Dead

Okay, still here? The new spinoff is called Isle of the Dead. It follows Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they explore a part of the zombie-infested world we’ve never seen on the show: Manhattan. “The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty and terror,” AMC said in a statement, per TV Line.

The show has surely paired Maggie and Negan together because they hate each other; if you’ve forgotten, Negan brutally beat Maggie’s husband Glenn to death with a baseball bat in the season 7 premiere, so there should be lots of juicy tension. Why they would travel to New York together, the show will just have to figure out.

I say that the existence of Isle of the Dead could be considered a “spoiler” because it reveals that Maggie and Negan both survive the upcoming Walking Dead series finale. AMC is also making a spinoff show about Carol and Daryl, so at this point the pool of long-running characters who might bite it is getting pretty small.

That said, can you really spoil something that AMC is proudly touting on the poster for the show?

Isle of the Dead: Revolution of The Walking Dead universe, or cash grab?

Longtime The Walking Dead producer Eli Jorné will manage the first season of Isle of the Dead, which will run for six episodes. “[Jorné] has created something incredibly special,” Cohan said. “I cannot wait for the fans to see what we have in store for Maggie and Negan.”

Morgan seemed ever more excited:

"Walkers in an urban setting has always been such a cool image, but 5th Avenue, [the] Empire State Building, [the] Statue of Liberty? The greatest city in the world?!? The backdrop is amazing, but it’s the story that Eli Jorné cooked up that is even better. Buckle up, folks, Isle of the Dead is going to reinvent the Walking Dead Universe."

As for me, I’m finding it hard to get too excited about these spinoffs, at least this far out. Whenever the cast and crew talks about how bold and fun they are, I kind of hear it in my head as, “AMC wants to make more money even if they have to dilute the franchise, so here we are.”

But maybe I’m being too cynical. For now, new episodes of The Walking Dead season 11 air on Sundays on AMC, and a week early on AMC+.

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