‘The Walking Dead’ Spinoffs Explained: Everything to Know About the Current Zombie Shows

‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ and ‘The Book of Carol’

Originally, the Norman Reedus-led spinoff The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was supposed to co-star Melissa McBride as Carol, the veritable Sarah Connor of the Walking Dead universe. Instead, McBride took time away from the world of the walkers, sitting out of the first season of Daryl Dixon, save for cameo contributions. Now, not only did she return for season two, she brought her very own name to the title, as AMC officially announced the series’ second year under the subtitle, The Book of Carol.

The first season of Daryl Dixon followed — you guessed it — Daryl Dixon, venturing from America all the way to France. The series leaned into Parisian iconography, including a fight scene set beside the Eiffel Tower, as well as a smart use of the Paris Catacombs to delineate this corner of the zombie apocalypse from its American counterpart. Season two’s Book of Carol saw Carol enter the mix, ostensibly to bring Daryl home, but also to wind up on myriad European jaunts with her post-apocalypse bestie. (They have friendship bracelets. It’s cute!) The second season filmed in Europe as part of an agreement between the AMC and SAG-AFTRA, and premiered Sept. 29, 2024. Ahead of the finale, the series was renewed for a third season — with both of them on board — and set to film in Spain. Here’s where the final episode left the iconic pair of Walker apocalypse survivalists.

‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2

AMC took a big swing with its first major Walking Dead successor. Okay, could have phrased that better, considering it’s the show starring baseball bat-wielding bad guy (reformed) Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and “The Widow” Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan). Archenemies turned reluctant allies, the first season of The Walking Dead: Dead City focused on Negan and Maggie journeying across Manhattan in a bid to save Maggie’s son from a deranged enemy known as The Croat (Zeljko Ivanek, adding yet another scenery-chewing villain to his impressive rolodex). 

Dead City was proof of concept that more life existed within the Walking Dead universe following the flagship’s ending. Not only did the drastic change of location serve the series well (even if native New Yorkers could tell just how much was shot across the Hudson River in New Jersey), but the resetting of two familiar faces with ancient history between them proved a worthy way into a new story with old roots. The series was renewed for a second season in July 2023, with a premiere planned for spring 2025.

When promoting the show’s return at New York Comic Con, the stars and creatives teased what awaits fan-favorite characters Maggie (Cohan) and Negan (Morgan) as they navigate a post-apocalyptic Manhattan. “When we came to do season 11, we knew the [original] show would either go on for four more years and we would essentially take over the old show, or we would go and do this new show, and that would be in New York,” Cohan said of the seeds of Dead City. “They came to us both about doing like a Negan show and a Maggie show and then I think Scott was like, ‘What about the two of y’all? We all thought that that made the most sense because these are two characters that you would never expect to even be in the same room, much less go and do a spinoff and have to spend real time together.” 

‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’

Alternately known as The Walking Dead: TOWeL (if not by everyone, certainly by myself and my Walking Dead podcast colleagues), The Ones Who Live centers the long-awaited reunion between two of the most pivotal players in the entire franchise: Rick Grimes and Michonne, the long-lost lovers played by Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira. Originally designed as a series of feature films, Rick and Michonne’s story was retooled for a limited series format and released in February 2024. The ending (read spoilers here) begged the question: where does the franchise go from here?

Set after Michonne’s season 10 decision to leave her group and find her presumed-dead husband Rick, The Ones Who Live takes its name from an adage the central characters used to keep each other afloat during the darkest days of The Walking Dead. They have their work cut out for them in their own limited series, with the arrival of television veteran Terry O’Quinn stepping in as an antagonist named Beale. Additionally, Pollyanna McIntosh returns as Jadis, the character who saved Rick’s life and exited him from the show back in season nine; in returning for The Ones Who Live, Jadis becomes one of only three main characters who has appeared in three different Walking Dead spinoffs, having also appeared in The Walking Dead: World Beyond. The other character she ties with? None other than Rick himself, as well as the co-star of another active Walking Dead series…

‘Fear the Walking Dead’: The Final Season

After eight seasons, the Walking Dead franchise’s first spinoff aired six final episodes in 2023 to bring Fear the Walking Dead to a close. The first half of season eight saw the departure of Morgan Jones, played by franchise veteran Lennie James across both Fear and the flagship Walking Dead. With his story concluded, the final six Fear installments brought about an end the story of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), the series’ original protagonist, seemingly killed off in season four, only to return at the end of season seven. 

In these final episodes, Madison takes the spotlight, with an opportunity to close the curtain on the character from co-creator and original Fear showrunner Dave Erickson’s first three seasons: Madison; daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), whose fate remained in flux after departing the series in season seven); Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades), one of Madison’s only remaining day one allies; and Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), conspicuously absent in the final run thus far, following a hard pivot toward supervillain status in season seven.

‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ and ‘More Tales From the Walking Dead Universe’

Anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead offered some of the best stories set within AMC’s zombie universe in years. But the six standalone episodes, airing from August through September 2022, have yet to receive any follow-up action. With that said, AMC has announced a series of shorts tentatively (and kind of amazingly) titled More Tales From the Walking Dead Universe, effectively borrowing the same premise (and most of the same title) as Tales. There’s currently no word on when to expect these shorts, but if one of these episodes doesn’t involve the alternate Walking Dead universe in which Rick Grimes gets a lightsaber and battles aliens (true story), what are we even doing here?