The Walking Dead has been planting seeds for its Daryl Dixon spinoff since season 1. It’s been confirmed for months now that while The Walking Dead is coming to an end, Daryl will soldier on in another show. Norman Reedus’ character will get the spinoff treatment in 2021.
There was a time when it was expected that both Daryl and Melissa McBride’s Carol would leave Alexandria together after The Walking Dead season 11 part 3, but that plan has apparently changed. McBride has exited the series, thus leaving Daryl to go on a solo journey when the fight with the Commonwealth comes to an end. As for where he’ll be going, it’s now known that Daryl’s next adventure will somehow take him all the way to . Why he’ll go there remains to be seen, but it most likely has something to do with Walking Dead: World Beyond’s ending tease, which set up a major zombie conflict taking place in .
Looking at what’s been revealed about the setting for Daryl’s spinoff, it seems the franchise has been quietly laying the groundwork for it since the very beginning. In fact, the first building block to it can be found in an exchange from The Walking Dead season 1 finale. When Rick’s group met Dr. Jenner at the CDC, the latter explained that scientists from multiple parts of the world were communicating with them and working toward a cure for the zombie virus. According to Dr. Jenner, the scientists in held out the longest. And since Dr. Jenner had a cameo in World Beyond’s tease, this detail is likely to be relevant to the story for Daryl’s show.
Why Walking Dead Season 1’s Tease Matters
Dr. Jenner’s line doesn’t reveal much, but does provide a framework for Daryl’s Walking Dead show. The suggestion that fared better than other nations speaks positively of the state of the country and hints at why it could be Daryl’s next destination in the Walking Dead franchise. If they have more resources and are in a better position to combat the zombie outbreak, then that would make a key location in the worldwide battle to survive the zombie apocalypse. Not only that, but Dr. Jenner’s abrupt reference to the French came as a response to a question about whether or not anyone knows how to cure the virus, which could be a sign that the solution does indeed lie with the French.
If French scientists got further in their work than the other countries, that would make sense of why they have smarter and faster zombies, as their “cure” could have made things worse. The CRM, or perhaps someone else, could send Daryl there to get to the bottom of all this and perhaps even get his hands on a possible cure. Either way, Daryl’s Walking Dead show is starting to look like a story with bigger stakes than anything the franchise has ever done before.