SDCC 2024: The Walking Dead’s Maggie and Negan Go to War in Dead City Season 2 Trailer

The gangs of The Walking Dead: Dead City have an empire state of mind. AMC’s Maggie and Negan Walking Dead spinoff starring Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan traveled from New York to San Diego Comic-Con‘s Hall H on Friday, where the co-stars debuted the first trailer for the upcoming second season (which premieres in 2025 on AMC and AMC+). Watch the just-released trailer in the player above.

“In the growing war for control of Manhattan, Maggie and Negan findthemselves trapped on opposite sides,” reads the official synopsis. “As theirpaths intertwine, they come to see that the way out for both is morecomplicated and harrowing than they ever imagined.” 

“The old world was rigged. Designed to rip us apart,” intones the Burazi-allied Dama in voice over. “That was the world of the dead.” With a familiar whistle, out steps the leather jacket-clad Negan with Lucille: the bloodied, barbwire-wrapped baseball bat that signals the return of Negan as savior of a gang war-torn Manhattan.

When the Walking Dead spinoff concluded its first season in July 2023, Maggie handed over her husband’s killerto the Croat (Željko Ivanek) and The Dama (Lisa Emery). As it turnedout, the Dama had Maggie’s son, Hershel (Logan Kim), kidnapped so thatMaggie would bring her the fugitive Negan before he could be captured byrelentless New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles). TheDama then blackmailed the former Savior leader, offering him the keys tothe kingdom to unite the island’s settlements under one indomitablerule — lest she go after Maggie’s rescued son a second time.

“I know what it means to go back to Manhattan,” Maggie says in the trailer. “It’s cost me a lot. Almost everything.” When Armstrong asks why Maggie wants to save the life of the man she once wanted dead, she says of Negan: “It’s different now.”

“I think Negan has found out that he screwed up, that he made mistakes back then and I think he has made an earnest effort to move forward,” Morgan explained during the panel. “That being said, the circumstances of this season bring back the old Negan.”

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Also announced at the panel: new season 2 cast members Dascha Polanco (Orange Is the New Black), Jake Weary (Animal Kingdom), Keir Gilchrist (Love & Death), and Pooya Mohseni (Madam Secretary). They join previously announced series newcomer Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy).

Alongside Cohan and Morgan, Dead Cityseason 2 stars Gaius Charles as Armstrong, Željko Ivanek as The Croat, Mahina Anne MarieNapoleon as Ginny, Lisa Emery as The Dama, and Logan Kim as Hershel Rhee. EliJorné, a writer and co-executive producer on The Walking Deadfor multiple seasons, returns as showrunner and executive producer onthe series, along with Scott M. Gimple, chief content officer of The Walking Dead Universe, Cohan, Morgan, Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live), Michael Satrazemis (Fear the Walking Dead) and Colin Walsh (NOS4A2).

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 airs in 2025 on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and on Facebook for more TWD Universe coverage) and ComicBook.com’s Comic-Con hub for the latest news and updates out of SDCC 2024.