AMC Chief on The Walking Dead’s End, Universe Spinoffs

“Every great show, every great experience at some point comes to an end,” Dan McDermott, President of Entertainment and AMC Studios, said Wednesday during the AMC Networks Summit. Shows like Better Call Saul and Killing Eve, which aired their series finales earlier this year, and The Walking Dead — the cabler’s biggest hit of all time ending with its final eight episodes this fall — “helped define AMC as a home for premium content.” Beginning in 2023, the company continues to expand The Walking Dead Universe with three new spinoff shows set to air on AMC and AMC+, the networks’ flagship streaming service.

AMC+ viewership data shows that The Walking Dead‘s “core, passionate fanbase is very much still engaged,” McDermott said (via Deadline). The upcoming Walking Dead spinoffs focused on fan-favorite characters “will satisfy the core audience and bring in new audiences,” McDermott said, adding AMC intends to keep the franchise from feeling “overly familiar” to viewers.

Fear the Walking Dead, returning for its semi-rebooted eighth season in 2023, launched in 2015 as the first spinoff set within the world of The Walking Dead. The universe expanded further with The Walking Dead: World Beyond, a two-season limited event series that offered a young adult take on the zombie apocalypse, and Tales of the Walking Dead, an episodic anthology series that premiered with its first six episodes this summer.

Announced spinoffs slated to begin airing next year on AMC and AMC+ include The Walking Dead: Dead City (previously titled Isle of the Dead), which follows rivals Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) into post-apocalyptic New York City; an untitled solo series focused on Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), the franchise’s first show to film and take place internationally; and the as-yet-untitled Rick/Michonne series reuniting Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira).

AMC has ordered six-episode first seasons for all three shows continuing on after the events of The Walking Dead, which begins airing its final eight episodes October 2nd on AMC and AMC+. (Read ComicBook‘s review of the last episodes and see our comprehensive guide to the final season of The Walking Dead.)

In August, McDermott announced an “epic live event” taking place in Los Angeles to send off “the most successful series in the history of cable television” when The Walking Dead ends with its series finale on November 20th.

Follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for TWD Universe coverage all season long.