The Walking Dead Universe Recap: Comic-Con 2023

The Walking Dead is dead. Long live The Walking Dead Universe. After AMC’s flagship zombie drama ended with its November series finale, the network returned to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday to preview the next phase of the TWDU. There were trailers. There were announcements. And there were surprises. Below, we rounded up all the Comic-Con highlights and reveals from The Walking Dead Universe Fan Watch Party in Hall H, including The Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Fear the Walking Dead, and The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne. 

Earlier this year, AMC’s Walking Dead Universe chief content officer Scott M. Gimple said in a statement: “The Walking Dead Universe LIVES! To conclude Fear the Walking Dead, we’re thrilled to be bringing you one of its most vibrant, inventive, exciting seasons EVER, while breaking new ground with old favorites: Maggie and Negan in the madhouse of post-apocalyptic Manhattan with no one to depend on but each other…Daryl Dixon in France, a loner who cannot move through this new dangerous world alone, facing vicious enemies and never-seen-before threats of the undead. And Rick and Michonne, in a romantic saga of the dangerous road to each other, and the road they must find with each other, cornered by a new civilization and hordes of the dead.” 

The road starts at San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

The Walking Dead: Dead City and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Renewed for Season 2

Ahead of The Walking Dead: Dead City season finale on July 23rd, AMC announced the Maggie and Negan Walking Dead spin-off starring Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been renewed for season 2. The series from creator and showrunner Eli Jorné debuted in June as the #1 season premiere in the history of AMC+ in terms of viewership across all new and returning series, including The Walking Dead, and has seen increased viewership with each week. (For more, click here.)

The network also gave an early renewal for Norman Reedus spin-off The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which premieres September 10th on AMC and AMC+. (For more, click here.)

Said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks: “This next chapter in the Walking Dead Universe continues to thrive with a terrific inaugural season for Dead City and highly anticipated new journey for fan-favorite character Daryl Dixon coming in September. We can’t wait to bring Dead City fans back to the epicenter of Manhattan for more zip-lining action with Maggie and Negan. And, ahead of its debut, we’re thrilled to double down on Daryl as we bring the apocalypse to France, transforming Notre Dame, Pont du Gard and other iconic locales into an apocalyptic landscape unlike anything we’ve seen before.”

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Trailer and Sneak Peek

AMC released The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Comic-Con trailer (watch it here), revealing new footage from the series that finds Daryl (Reedus) marooned in France. Genet (Anne Charrier) and Codron (Romain Levi) are after “the American” messenger, charged with protecting the survivor who will lead the revival of humanity: an 11-year-old boy named Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi). 

The first minutes of the Daryl Dixon series premiere screened exclusively for Comic-Con attendees, but AMC+ subscribers can watch the 10-minute sneak peek at home starting Saturday, July 22nd.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Part 2 Release Date

AMC announced the premiere date for the final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead: Sunday, October 22nd. Only six episodes remain of the eighth and final season of the original Walking Dead spin-off, which enters its endgame with a cast that includes Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), Luciana (Danay García), and Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades).

Fear the Walking Dead Streaming on AMC+

For the first time, all eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead are available to stream on AMC+. The network made the announcement with a retrospective teaser looking back at the first seven seasons before the end of Fear begins this fall. 

The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne Title Revealed

The Walking Dead spin-off reuniting Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) has an official title: The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The title refers to the secret saying that Rick and Michonne shared with their children, Judith (Cailey Fleming) and Rick “RJ” Grimes Jr. (Antony Azor), that was revealed in a coda ending The Walking Dead series finale.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Trailer

AMC released a brief teaser trailer revealing the first look at the Rick and Michonne Walking Dead spin-off (watch it here) from showrunner Scott M. Gimple. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live consists of six episodes and premieres on AMC and AMC+ in 2024.

According to AMC’s description: “This seriespresents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changedworld. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts ofwho they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, builton a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living.Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situationunlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims?Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they findthat they, too, are the Walking Dead?”

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.