How The Walking Dead Season 10 Set Up Daryl and Carol Spinoff

Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride's Walking Dead spinoff won't hit the road until 2023, but spinoff co-creator Angela Kang set up the new series with last October's Season 10 premiere of The Walking Dead. The currently untitled spinoff, created by Kang and TWD chief content officer Scott Gimple, will continue the story of zombie apocalypse survivors Daryl (Reedus) and Carol (McBride) after the conclusion of The Walking Dead's eleventh and final season in 2022. In Season 10 premiere "Lines We Cross," scripted by Kang, a war-weary Daryl and Carol daydream about running away together to New Mexico — a possible destination for their Walking Dead sequel series.

Reuniting after Carol spent months away at sea to escape her grief over son Henry (Matt Lintz), one of the victims murdered by Whisperer pack leader Alpha (Samantha Morton), the best friends mull over life out on the road. Says Carol, "You ever wonder if this is all there is? Just run into people, kill each other until whoever's left says enough?"

When Daryl answers they're "just surviving one fight to the next," Carol tells him, "It was like that for you and me before all this."

"There's gotta be people out there like us," Daryl says of this wished-for shelter to survivors tired of fighting. Carol suggests sailing away so they can "be pirates," but a boat's cramped cabins might as well be a cage.

When Carol says they'll take Daryl's bike and go out on the road heading west, he names New Mexico as their landing-place. "No more fighting," Daryl says. "Just get on the bike and go. See who's left."

Asked why Daryl and Carol didn't embark on their road trip in an October interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reedus said, "You never know."

"Life is so hard sometimes, especially on that show for those characters," Reedus continued. "They say 'What if we did this?' They're kind of daydreaming about stuff. We're kind of window-shopping opportunities. I think it's what you would do. You'd be, 'Meh, I just wish things would be different right now.' So it's two friends doing that. Sparking a little openness to them."

All roads could lead to the Walking Dead feature films starring Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes, who is believed dead by Daryl and Carol following his apparent death in a bridge explosion more than six years earlier. Reedus previously indicated Daryl's gut feeling tells him the missing Rick is still alive, and that Daryl won't give up the hunt until he finds a body.

The Walking Dead first returns with its Season 10 finale Sunday, October 4, on AMC. Following The Walking Dead's final season in 2022, the untitled Daryl/Carol spinoff will premiere on the network in 2023.