The Walking Dead Will Reveal the Story Behind Daryl's Dog

The Walking Dead will be doggone if it doesn't tell the story behind Daryl's (Norman Reedus) canine companion in the extended Season 10. When Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride) come across an old cabin in "Find Me," one of the six new bonus episodes set in the aftermath of the Whisperer War, Daryl flashes back to the years when he left the group after the disappearance and presumed death of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). It's during Daryl's dogged search for Rick's body that he encounters enigmatic stranger Leah (Lynn Collins), who quickly reveals whether she's all bark and no bite during a chance meeting.

"We will get to see a little Dog, a little baby puppy Dog," showrunner Angela Kang teased during The Walking Dead Extended Season 10 Preview Special. "The Dog origin story (laughs)."

Asked if Daryl has "met his match" in Leah, who may or may not be Dog's original owner, a tight-lipped Kang said, "I think Leah, without giving too much away, Leah is formidable."

Daryl and Leah "have a very complex situation that arises after they meet," Kang said. "So we wanted to tell this story from Daryl's past, and I don't want to say too much more, but let people kind of see how it unfolds between them."

In these six interquels separating the tenth season and the upcoming 24-episode eleventh and final season, "We'll be seeing a mix of stories from people's past that affect the future, as well as where everybody's at in the aftermath of this giant Whisperer War because things are pretty screwed up and they've got a lot to do to pull themselves together."

"These are episodes that are an extension of Season 10, but we started them after we'd already been starting work on Season 11 and the pandemic interrupted things. But there's still a lot of really great character work that we get into in these episodes," Kang said of the six-episode Season 10C. "We get into where Daryl and Carol are at after the emotional roller coaster that they were on in the Whisperers arc, we get to see wonderful Paola [Lázaro, who plays Princess] and the group that she's with, getting to learn a little bit more about the group that they were apprehended by at the end of episode 16. We get to see Aaron and Gabriel on just an old-fashioned Walking Dead survival story that tells us a lot about the state of Alexandria, which is going to be really, really important for the story going forward, and then we get to dive into the Maggie and Negan dynamic, which I know a lot of people are excited to find out how those two are gonna occupy the same space."

Season 10 of The Walking Dead returns with six all-new bonus episodes Sunday, February 28, on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.