The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere to air earlier than planned

We’re closing in on the release of The Walking Dead: Dead City, the first of AMC’s new wave of Walking Dead spinoff series. This one follows Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they travel to a zombie-infested Manhattan in order to rescue Maggie’s son Hershel after he’s kidnapped by an old acquaintance of Negan’s. Negan beat Maggie’s husband Glenn (Steven Yeun) to death with a baseball bat all the way back in the season 7 premiere, so they make for uneasy traveling companions.

The Walking Dead: Dead City is slated to premiere on AMC+ on June 15, three days earlier than its linear TV air date on June 18. While the dates remain unchanged, AMC announced this week that the Dead City television premiere will now air an hour earlier than originally planned: 9 p.m. EST, as opposed to 10 p.m.

The subsequent five episodes of Dead City were all set to air at 9. It was only the premiere that was originally going to drop at 10. That’s because another Walking Dead spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead, is scheduled to air its mid-season finale on the same day. Comicbook.com reports that the Fear the Walking Dead mid-season finale will still “lead into the Dead City premiere on June 18th,” so presumably that means Fear the Walking Dead will be airing at 8 p.m. that night, though that doesn’t appear to have been confirmed quite yet.

The Walking Dead: Dead City will air at 9 pm instead of 10 pm

The Walking Dead: Dead City marks the beginning of a new era for The Walking Dead franchise following the end of the mothership series last year. There’s a lot riding on this one, but it’s only the start; already we know we’ll be seeing a Daryl Dixon spinoff as well as one about Rick and Michonne.

Beyond Maggie and Negan, Dead City features new characters like lawman Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles), Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), and The Croat (Željko Ivanek). It’s been teased that The Croat — that’s the guy seemingly responsible for little Hershel’s kidnapping — has some kind of connection to Negan through the Saviors, his old gang back when he was still a scenery-chewing archvillain.

We’ll see exactly what the connection is, and how it will affect Maggie and Negan’s rescue mission, when The Walking Dead: Dead City premiere, “Old Acquaintances,” hits AMC+ on June 15 and AMC proper on June 18 at 9 p.m. EST. Subsequent episodes will stick to the same schedule of dropping on AMC+ on Thursdays and airing on AMC Sundays at 9.

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