The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 to Resume Filming Amid Actors' Strike (Exclusive)

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 is set to resume production next week amid the actors' strike, ComicBook has exclusively learned. In August, AMC Networks secured an interim agreement with the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) to resume filming on three series: two Walking Dead spin-offs, Daryl Dixon and The Ones Who Live, and Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. Per the striking actors' union's official list of Productions Approved and Signed to Interim Agreements, the cast and crew are permitted to return to work on these productions without being in violation of the strike order in place since July 14th.

"We're prepping. We're getting ready to shoot," The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon showrunner David Zabel told ComicBook ahead of the first season finale (airing Sunday, October 15th, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+). In an interview conducted the day after members of the Writers Guild of America ratified its contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to end the 148-day writers' strike, Zabel confirmed that the series, which is set and filmed in France, resumes production on October 20th.

"We've got a bunch to film, but we're in pretty good shape," Zabel said of the upcoming second season, which AMC ordered in July. Some of Daryl Dixon season 2 filmed earlier this year in Europe before a planned hiatus that coincided with the actors' strike.

AMC Networks, which produces the series via Stalwart Films and AMC Studios, is an "authorized company" but is not a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing the major Hollywood studios and streamers. Daryl Dixon is among more than 300 "independent" projects granted the waiver with an agreement to abide by the terms the AMPTP eventually reaches with SAG-AFTRA. 

The interim agreement "hopefully won't be relevant because I'm hoping that SAG will get what they need and be able to end their action soon," the former ER showrunner added. "But in the meantime, with the writers able to work, and me able to work, we're able to fully produce the show as always. And so that resumes on October 20th and continues from then."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premiered September 10th as the #1 most-viewed premiere of all time and the most-viewed season of any show in the three-year history of streaming service AMC+. Norman Reedus leads a cast that includes Clémence Poésy, Adam Nagaitis, Anne Charrier, Eriq Ebouaney, Laika Blanc Francard, Romain Levi, and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi. Zabel serves as executive producer alongside Reedus, Scott M. Gimple, Greg Nicotero, Angela Kang, Brian Bockrath, Jason Richman, and Daniel Percival.

Daryl Dixon's first season finale premieres Sunday, October 15th on AMC and AMC+.

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