LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: AMC's zombie apocalypse franchise will be coming out with another spin-off, ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’. This is the fourth spin-off of the original series and just like the other shows, it will be further expanding on the universe of ‘The Walking Dead’ with a different timeline.
It remains a concern if the show will pick up from an existing timeline and whether the viewers who want to get on board will need to watch the previous shows to watch this spin-off. Given the expansive length of the original series and the other spin-offs, it will only be more efficient to know what all is relevant to the spin-off ‘Dead City’ if you are interested in joining the adventure.
What is ‘The Walking Dead: The Dead City’ about?
‘Dead City’ brings back the iconic characters from the original series, Maggie (Lauren Cohen) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The pair will team up to travel all the way to Manhattan which has been engulfed by the undead and is a lot more dangerous than open grasslands because of its tall buildings and dark alleys.
The comeback of the pair is an interesting choice as they didn’t exactly have a great relationship in the original series. The details won’t be spoiled here but Maggie has all the valid reasons to hate and not forgive Negan. She only reaches out to him as her son Hershel got kidnapped and Negan is the only way she could get her son back. Along with the old characters of Maggie and Negan, the series will also introduce new characters and storylines while tackling the tensions between them.
So, what do you need to watch for the spin-off?
Since the concept of ‘The Walking Dead’ spin-offs so far has been focusing on timelines completely separate from the original one, they are not really relevant to each other or the upcoming spin-off. They are rather standalone series that don’t require a lot of context.
But ‘Dead City’ is not a standalone at all. As mentioned before, it picks up from a storyline that existed in the original series. To know the context behind Maggie and Negan’s relationship, it is important to watch ‘The Walking Dead’. Maggie is part of almost all of the original series while Negan joins the show in Season 6. There are several changes in the dynamic of the two characters and they were central to each other's development.
So the original series is a must from the first season to the very last Season 11 which only recently finished airing. However, you don’t have to watch other shows in the ‘The Walking Dead’ universe. The spin-off ‘Dead City’ will premiere on AMC and AMC+ starting June 18, 2023.
