Posted in: AMC, Preview, TV, Walking Dead | Tagged: amc, Daryl Dixon, norman reedus, preview, The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Norman Reedus Signals Spinoff Filming Start

Right now, if you're a fan of AMC's The Walking Dead? Then you're keeping one radar set on the remaining four episodes of the franchise series and another set on what the future has in store. Now, we know that the Jeffrey Dean Morgan & Lauren Cohan-starring The Walking Dead: Dead City will be hitting screens in April 2023, and we're checking everywhere for any word on the Andrew Lincoln & Danai Gurira-starring spinoff. But when it comes to the Norman Reedus-starring, Daryl Dixon-focused spinoff, we have a very big update directly from Reedus himself.

Here's a look at Reedus' Instagram post (location marked as Paris, France) offering a close-up teaser image from filming to signal that filming on the spinoff series is officially underway. Here's a look (followed by additional intel from Reedus on what viewers can expect):

Earlier this month, Reedus stopped by Jimmy Kimmel's ABC late-night talk show to check in with the host on a number of topics. Kimmel asked Reedus about the upcoming spinoff that Reedus teases finds Daryl in Paris "not of his own free will." Having spent months on location scouting & discussing the project, Reedus adds that viewers will appreciate how "epic" it is, with castles and moats in play. And after teasing that they might even end up "destroying the Louvre" (couldn't tell if he was serious), Reedus also made it clear that he knows what he wants the spinoff to be called (even though an official name hasn't been set yet). Spoiler? Let's just say that it would be easy to remember (with the spinoff discussion beginning at the 7:15 mark):

Speaking with Variety last month after news hit that he would be receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Reedus explained why Melissa McBride (Carol) was once a part of the cast but now isn't while offering hints that plans for the two might already be in play. "How do you know she's not gonna come back?" Reedus offered in response when asked a question that was based on the assumption that McBride would not be involved, already getting the speculation fires raging.

"The spinoff was announced before we even announced 'The Walking Dead' was ending. We always thought we were doing a show that would come back to the flagship show- we'd take off, then come back to the flagship show. Then they ended the flagship show, and it was us on our own. And then we shot for a year and a half straight, through the beginning of COVID. At that point, Melissa [McBride] wasn't going to do the show. And then she was going to do the show. And then she wasn't going to do the show. And then she needed a break, and I went on TV and said she needs a break. I'm telling the truth. It's always been the truth. But you don't know she's not going to show up on the spinoff, the actor continued before adding, "She's a very big part of Daryl's story. It's all gonna be OK."

As for the spinoff itself, Reedus sees it as a way of continuing to tell Daryl's story… wherever that may lead. "I feel like because he wasn't in the comic book, and they let me run with it, I want to bookend it. I feel like I birthed this child, and someone can't tell me when it's over. I want to see it either have a happy ending or not," Reedus explained. "That character, I got to really make it my own, and that felt great to collaborate. At first, they had me taking drugs and being racist and all this stuff, and I convinced them that, no, no, I want to have grown up with it and been ashamed of it."

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