The Walking Dead may have ended, but like the zombies it takes its name from, the series has lived on in the form of spin-offs, such as The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Norman Reedus‘ fan-favorite archer was recently greenlit for a third season, while the second — subtitled The Book of Carol — will bring Melissa McBride‘s Carol Peletier into the fold. Season 3 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has even started casting, with filming set to take place in various locations in Spain. This all but hints that Daryl and possibly Carol will find themselves in Spain at some point, but it also provides the answer to a question that might have been on Walking Dead fans’ minds: How did the rest of the world deal with a zombie outbreak?
The original Walking Dead series, and the Image Comics series by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore that inspired it, mostly take place in the United States. More specifically, they take place in Atlanta, Georgia — which is the hometown of Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln); Rick even met Daryl and his brother Merle (Michael Rooker) in Season 1. That same season featured a hint as to how the rest of the world was dealing with the zombie outbreak, and if The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon follows up on that hint, it could provide a unique path going forward for the franchise.
The Walking Dead Franchise Has Cemented France As the Origin of the Zombie Outbreak
The Season 1 finale of The Walking Dead, “TS-19,” finds Rick and his group of survivors entering a CDC research facility where they come into contact with its sole survivor, Dr. Edwin Jenner (Noah Emmerich). Jenner reveals more about the virus, including how it causes the dead to reanimate; after he sets the facility to self-destruct, he also privately tells Rick that every living human being carries the pathogen that transforms them into a walker, and it only activates when they die. But there was another tossed off piece of dialogue that viewers might have missed: Jenner tells Rick’s group that scientists in France have come close to a cure. In The Walking Dead: World Beyond, it is revealed that the pathogen that creates walkers also originated in France as a result of French scientists’ experiments.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon finally takes viewers to France, as Daryl is washed ashore and ends up coming into conflict with a group named the Power of the Living, who have been experimenting on walkers with horrifying results. “Burners” are walkers with acid blood a la Alien, meaning that even if you kill them they could severely wound or infect you. Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), a nun Daryl encounters, later tells him that there are even more terrifying variants of walkers out there, something that could keep the Walking Dead franchise fresh. After all, regular walkers can only go so far; these new variants have the potential to ratchet up the horror factor for future seasons of Daryl Dixon and other Walking Dead spin-offs.
‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ Can Showcase How the World Deals With Walkers
By moving to France and Spain, The Walking Dead franchise is opening its borders in terms of geography and storytelling avenues. It’s the chance to find out how other nations dealt with the walker uprising; did they collapse into anarchy? Did they manage to keep their humanity in the face of horror? The nations of the world already have multiple differences, from languages to healthcare to beliefs, so it’s not hard to see how those beliefs could be strengthened or change over time. The Walking Dead played with this, introducing characters like Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), who struggled with his faith after the outbreak, and the infamous Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who led the group known as the Saviors for a time.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has already begun to delve into this, with Isabelle believing that Daryl is meant to escort a boy named Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) to safe haven; she believes Laurent could be the key to curing the virus as he was born after his mother was turned. Time will tell if there’s anything special about Laurent’s birth or if he really does hold the key to curing the walker pathogen, but given how Season 1 shows him slowly bonding with Daryl, it’s safe to say that he’ll play a major role in The Book of Carol.
Branching Out Into Other Countries Lays the Groundwork for Other Spin-Offs
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon isn’t just opening itself up to new storytelling possibilities by moving to France and Spain, it’s also laying the groundwork for potential new spin-offs. Setting an entire Walking Dead series in a different part of the world could open up so many opportunities. There’s the terrain — countries like Australia have harsher conditions than others — and there’s also the terrifying possibility of getting lost in unfamiliar surroundings. It’s hard enough to survive on your own, but imagine being lost at sea like Daryl was or in the middle of unforgiving terrain like a desert plain or a snowstorm. But part of what’s kept the Walking Dead alive is seeing how the characters survive. This would take it to a whole new level.
Spin-offs set in different countries could also allow the Walking Dead franchise to move past its core characters. All the Walking Dead spin-offs so far have either centered on a main character from the show or featured guest stars from previous seasons — Dr. Jenner even showed up on The Walking Dead: World Beyond. By developing new characters, the franchise can be opened up to new stories, and give the Walking Dead franchise a metaphorical jolt of life. Time will tell how Spain factors into Season 3 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, but moving to another new location holds plenty of promise.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is available to stream on AMC+ in the U.S.
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