TWD's Daryl Dixon Spinoff Casts Leads Opposite Norman Reedus

Clémence Poésy and Adam Nagaitis are saying "bonjour" to the Walking Dead Universe. Poésy (the Harry Potter franchise, The Essex Serpent) and Nagaitis (The Terror, Chernobyl) have been cast as leads opposite Norman Reedus in Daryl Dixon, AMC's Walking Dead spin-off set and filmed in Paris, France. The European-set series began filming last month in Paris, making it the first Walking Dead show to take place entirely overseas. Reedus reprises his longtime Walking Dead role as zombie apocalypse survivor Daryl Dixon, who somehow finds himself in France after the events of the flagship's November 20th series finale. Deadline first reported the news. 

French actor Poésy plays the female lead Isabelle, "a member of a progressive religious group who joins forces with Daryl on a journey across France and finds herself confronting her dark past in Paris," according to Deadline. Nagaitis is Quinn, described as "a displaced Brit who has become powerful in post-apocalyptic Paris as a black marketeer and the owner of the Demimonde, a sexy underground nightclub."

Originally announced as the Daryl & Carol spin-off co-starring Reedus and Melissa McBride, Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang co-created that version of the series with AMC's TWD Universe chief content officer Scott M. Gimple. In April, McBride dropped out of the series over the move to Europe; Kang subsequently exited as showrunner but will remain as executive producer on the redeveloped series from showrunner and executive producer David Zabel (ER, Mercy Street).

Reedus has teased "familiar faces" from the Walking Dead Universe will return in Daryl Dixon.

Why Is Daryl Dixon In France?

According to AMC president Dan McDermott, the Walking Dead spin-off focuses on Daryl as "he wakes up and finds himself somewhere on the European continent and tries to piece together what happened. How did he get here? How's he going to get home?"

"Somehow I get put there, and I don't go there on my own free will," Reedus explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live! "I've been out there [in France] location scouting and casting and everything for the last couple of months. It's epic. Castles, and moats of castles, it's just crazy."

What Is the Daryl Dixon Spin Off About?

"Daryl is a fish out of water to start with. If Daryl finds himself with new people, he's a fish out of water. In France, in a country that's going through the apocalypse, [it's] an entirely different thing," executive producer Gimple said on The Walking Dead Universe Preview special. "He finds himself having to reinvent himself again, having to find himself again, and also, not being with — probably — the only people in the world he's comfortable with."

Gimple also confirmed Daryl would face walkers and climbers, the name for The Walking Dead's variant walkers capable of climbing walls, opening doors, and wielding blunt objects as weapons. These "smart" zombies have appeared in recent episodes of The Walking Dead, tying into the post-credits coda of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. That scene was set within France's long-abandoned la Biomédicine DDMI lab, where graffiti revealed an ominous message: LES MORTS SONT NES ICL, or "the dead are born here."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is set to premiere its first six episodes in 2023 on AMC and AMC+.