The first season of AMC's Daryl Dixon spinoff – appropriately called The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – premiered just shy of one year ago. Fans didn't have to doubt for long about whether a Season 2 would arrive in the 2024 TV schedule, as Norman Reedus' show was renewed before the first season even premiered. AMC continued that trend at San Diego Comic-Con this year with the announcement that the series has been renewed for Season 3, more than a month before Season 2 premieres. There are even already plot details for the third season, some of which are... well, kind of puzzling.
The renewal itself isn't a shocker, as Norman Reedus recently established that he's open to playing Daryl for several more years still. The surprise is that The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon's cast and story are relocating from France to Spain, with production also moving to Spain, where it will be based in Madrid with extensive further on-location shooting. Talk about a major change!
And I'm no geography superstar, but ending up in Spain doesn't exactly indicate that Daryl and Carol's efforts to get home will be successful! In the press release that announced the renewal, AMC gave this description of Season 3:
Season three tracks Carol (McBride) and Daryl (Reedus) as they continue their journey towards home and the ones they love. As they struggle to find their way back, the path takes them farther astray, leading them through distant lands with ever-changing and unfamiliar conditions as they witness the various effects of the Walker apocalypse.
I'm sure there will be plenty of answers in Season 2, but I'm just really confused about what takes Daryl and Carol to Spain for the third season. Travel in the zombie apocalypse isn't exactly straightforward, and it's unlikely that they'll find any of their loved ones in Madrid. I'm also a little bit bummed out that the description already confirms that Daryl and Carol will be alive and well enough to be traveling together heading into Season 3.
That's not to say that I'm not excited by the idea of the two Walking Dead characters reuniting and sticking together after Melissa McBride's appearance at the end of Season 1, but the announcement does remove some of the suspense about whether the characters will survive another season of the Walking Dead franchise without also being split up.
Was it always a safe bet that both Daryl and Carol would survive a season titled The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol? Sure, but I like some suspense in my zombie apocalypse drama, and news of the surprising move to Spain for both characters takes some of that away. In a statement about Season 3, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks Dan McDermott said:
Sending Daryl, and then Carol, to France was such an inspired and visually striking move for this franchise, a chance to do something truly different. We can’t wait to continue the travels of this iconic duo with a third season produced and set in Spain, another beautiful country with a passionate TWD fanbase that is already buzzing with anticipation.
Norman Reedus commented that he "couldn’t be more thrilled to announce a third season and to be working side by side with the brilliant Melissa McBride," while McBride said that she's "really appreciating the new challenges for Daryl and Carol being so far from all they’ve ever known." And according to Scott Gimple, the chief content officer of The Walking Dead universe, "What’s to come in Spain may even surpass" what happens in France.
Production on Season 3 will begin in August, which places it a month before the premiere of Season 2. Whether or not you're as puzzled as I am about what has been confirmed already for the third season, we can all enjoy the newly-released trailer for Season 2:
Tune in to AMC on Sunday, September 29 at 9 p.m. ET for the Season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. You can watch the first season now with the AMC+ streaming service. If you want to revisit Daryl and Carol's dynamic in the original series, you can find all eleven seasons of The Walking Dead streaming via a Netflix subscription.
