When does The Walking Dead: Dead City take place?

The Walking Dead: Dead City marks the first direct spinoff of The Walking Dead series. This is the first spinoff in which stories of characters featured in the main series are continued in a new storyline in a new setting. It features Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) traveling to Manhattan.  This will be followed by a Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) spinoff in the fall of 2023 and a Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) series in 2024.

Dead City will move from the wooded setting of Georgia and Virginia and take Maggie & Negan into new territory, apocalyptic Manhattan. But what is the timeline of this series?

The final episode of The Walking Dead, which aired in November 2022, saw a one-year time jump after the fall of the Commonwealth. Dead City takes place approximately two years after that time jump. This has required the role of Maggie’s son Hershel to now be played by an older actor, Logan Kim (Ghostbusters: Afterlife). Kien Michael Spiller previously played this role in seasons 10 and 11 of the main series.

The Walking Dead: Dead City – two years later

When Maggie and Hershel were last seen in The Walking Dead finale, they were situated at a partially rebuilt Hilltop, which appeared to be thriving. Negan took his pregnant wife Annie (Medina Senghore) and moved away from the other communities. He didn’t move too far, as he could send correspondence to Judith (Cailey Fleming).

Dead City’s timeline will see these characters a couple of years later, and it will be interesting to see what has become of them during that time.

UPDATE: In an interview with OUCH! Magazine in June 2023, Cohan has stated that Dead City takes place five to six years after The Walking Dead. 

Follow Undead Walking on Twitter and sign up for the once-daily Undead Walking newsletter to avoid missing out on everything in The Walking Dead universe.