5 Ways Walking Dead: Dead City can recharge The Walking Dead universe

The Walking Dead: Dead City will premiere on AMC on June 18. Viewers can watch this series early with AMC’s subscription service AMC+, where episodes release on Thursdays. Much is expected of this series as it is the first direct spinoff to feature characters made famous from The Walking Dead. This series has the potential to recharge The Walking Dead universe.

Dead City is set approximately two years after the events of The Walking Dead’s final episode. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) was situated at the newly rebuilt Hilltop with her son Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller). She voiced her opinion about broadening their search for what lies beyond the walls of Hilltop.

Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) took his pregnant wife, Annie (Medina Senghore), to live elsewhere, believing it was only a matter of time before Maggie decided to kill him.

Dead City will see the unlikely teaming up of Maggie and Negan as they travel to apocalyptic Manhattan to rescue Hershel (now played by Logan Kim), who has been abducted by a former underling of Negan’s who goes by the name of The Croat (Zeljko Ivanek).

How The Walking Dead: Dead City can recharge TWDU

1. Nostalgia. This series can tug at viewers’ heartstrings by giving fans a taste of the original series. Fans long or the early days of The Walking Dead when things were new and exciting. Dead City has a chance to bring new life to TWDU by showing fans glimpses of what made the flagship series such a fantastic story.
2. A perfect villain. Remember the Governor? He was one of the best villains of The Walking Dead series. Dead City needs a villain who can rival the former leader of Woodbury. According to Morgan, the Croat is a former underling who has taken evil further than Negan ever did. He could be another key to making this series something extraordinary.
3. Smart newcomers. Often new characters are introduced but aren’t as bright as they could be. Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) is a New Babylon marshal searching for Negan for some unknown reason. He and others from his community must be intelligent to capture Negan, as he has been through a lot and isn’t easily outsmarted. It would make this series so much better to introduce new characters with the skills and intelligence to come against seasoned people like Maggie and Negan.
4. New elements to the Maggie and Negan tension. Everyone understands Maggie’s reasoning for hating Negan, and no one blames her. But if she is going to partner with him yet again, let’s see another angle to this feud. Showrunner Eli Jorne has stated that their history will be addressed in this series, so hopefully, it will be something new and not the same old story we’ve heard before.
5. Really using the cityscape to create a whole new apocalyptic world. Moving from the woods of Georgia and Virginia allows the creators to really get imaginative with this series. The trailer shows that this isn’t the backwoods any longer, and it appears that NYC will be seen like never before.

The Walking Dead: Dead City premieres on AMC on Sunday, June 18, at 9 p.m. ET and on AMC+ three days early on Thursday, June 15.

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