Norman Reedus Reveals How Daryl Dixon Spinoff Is Different From The Walking Dead (Exclusive)

The Daryl Dixon series spinning out of The Walking Dead will be different and won’t look, feel, or even sound like The Walking Dead. Norman Reedus reprises his role as the eponymous lone wolf zombie apocalypse survivor in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, an all-new Walking Dead spin-off show currently filming and set in Paris, France. Part of AMC’s Walking Dead Universe expanding with Maggie and Negan’s New York spin-off and the epic love story reuniting Rick Grimes and Michonne, the Daryl Dixon spin-off finds Daryl in Europe with a question of how he got there — and how he’s getting home.

“There was a part of [the series finale] where I smiled a little bit, and that tone kind of makes it into the spin-off a little bit,” Reedus exclusively told ComicBook of his last scene of the series, which ended on a lighter and more hopeful note. “And then it goes horribly wrong, like everything on The Walking Dead. It kind of felt like I was going to see what’s new out in the world, you know what I mean? Everybody was safe, and I was gonna go see what’s out there.”

Reedus continued: “The tone is much different, the [cinematography is] much different. The lighting’s different. We’re in castles, and the storyline has a religious vibe to it. Part of the story is me around a bunch of people speaking French. I’m trying to figure out like, ‘Is this gonna be a fight?’”

AMC Networks revealed first-look images at Reedus in the new series, which comes from executive producer Scott M. Gimple, executive producer and showrunner David Zabel, and director Greg Nicotero.

“I just think that it really sort of embraces a Stranger In a Strange Land kind of scenario, where we’re exploring post-apocalyptic Europe through the eyes of Daryl Dixon,” Nicotero, who directed the series finale of The Walking Dead, said in our “Rest in Peace” postmortem. “I got to say, we’ve had a great time. It really just is a differentanimal. And I even was sort of surprised, myself,standing on set and going, ‘I’ve been on Walking Dead for 12years and here we are.’ But it feels fresh and it feels new. And DavidZabel, our showrunner, has been an absolute joy to collaborate with. Andit’s been really fun.”

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres in 2023 on AMC and AMC+.

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