Season 2 of The Walking Dead : Dead City kicked off with a bang this past Sunday night, continuing the adventures of sworn enemies Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in New York City. While Maggie and her son Hershel were adjusting to life in the Bricks, Negan found himself a prisoner of the Croat in Manhattan. However, thanks to a recruitment drive from the New Babylon Federation, it looks like their paths will cross again, as Maggie heads back to the city with Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) in tow. Meanwhile, Negan was reunited with another lady in his life: a new version of his barbed wire baseball bat Lucille.
Lucille wasn’t the only return that Walking Dead fans were pleased to see, as the Dead City premiere also came with a new teaser for The Walking Dead’s other spinoff series, Daryl Dixon.
Viewers haven’t seen anything from Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) since they left France at the end of season 2. Now we have a new look at the continuing adventures of Daryl and Carol as they try to get home from Europe to the U.S.
In the short clip, we get our first real look at post-apocalyptic London, as well as some other environments. The opening shot shows Daryl alone walking in the desert, his head covered in a makeshift keffiyeh, looking the worse for wear. Later scenes show him riding a bike in the desert, holding a shotgun outstretched, and heading towards another motorcycle in some kind of joust.
In between the desert scenes, we see Daryl and Carol in a boat, sailing up the Thames river towards the Tower Bridge in London, alongside British comedy actor and writer Stephen Merchant. The view of London, overgrown and covered in foliage and moss, with crumbling iconic buildings, is one of those impressive city vistas that The Walking Dead does best.
When season 2 of Daryl Dixon ended, Daryl and Carol were walking through the Channel Tunnel towards England, but given that we know that season 3 ends up in Spain, we can assume this particular boat ride goes astray at some point.
Played over all of the visuals is an audio clip in which Daryl says, “I was pretty young when all this started… now all we do is run and fight. Ain’t no way to live.” The “pretty young” part of the dialogue was met with mirth on social media, as many fans don’t consider Daryl’s age at the start of the zombie breakout (around 40) to be young, but since we have no context for the line, it may not be that clear-cut.
Fans, however, did seem to be united in their excitement at seeing London, and the comic potential of Stephen Merchant’s mystery character interacting with the famously bantery Carol and Daryl. One fan even said Merchant’s character looked like a relationship counselor, appropriate given the friends' recent rocky past. Daryl and Carol had a major falling out in season 10 of the original show after Daryl’s past with Leah was revealed in the episode "Find Me," and though the frost between them seemed to thaw, still Daryl left alone at the end of season 11. Although he intended to come home soon after — even contacting Carol on radio to promise he was on his way — he was caught up with Genet’s walker experiments and transported to France. There he met Laurent and developed a romantic bond with Lauren’t aunt Isabelle. When Carol traveled to France with Ash on his small plane, she was shocked to find Daryl had gotten so close to Isabelle. The elderly couple Daryl and Carol encountered in the French countryside thought the pair bickered like an “old married couple,” so it's easy to imagine a third party getting caught in the middle of the back and forth.
Other actors announced to be joining Reedus, McBride and Merchant in season 3 include Eduardo Noriega, Óscar Jaenada, and Alexandra Masangkay, who was seen filming with Reedus towards the end of production in Spain.
The other big news from the new teaser is that season 3 will air this fall. Filming on season 3 of Daryl Dixon completed in Spain in February this year, and the premiere will likely take place on AMC in October, about a year after season 2.
In the meantime, fans have another seven episodes of Maggie and Negan's adventures to enjoy, as this second season of Dead City has been extended to eight episodes from the previous six-episode run for season 1. New episodes drop on AMC on Sunday nights.
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