The Walking Dead has been going strong for 16 years. While it might seem like the franchise is slowing down with only The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: Dead City as current Walking Dead shows, that won't be the case for much longer.
In a recent interview with The Ankler, AMC Chief Content Officer Dan McDermott recently revealed there are plans for more Walking Dead shows at AMC.
"We will always have Walking Dead shows on our platforms," McDermott mentioned. He also confirmed the network is in touch with Norman Reedus to explore ways to bring Daryl Dixon into the next iteration of The Walking Dead and whatever that looks like.
As a Bleeding Cool report pointed out, Scott M. Gimple, who is a longtime Walking Dead producer, also opened up to Brandon Davis in an interview about what The Walking Dead looks like in the future. He revealed that there's still a chance the original stars return, and that's his "hope."
"I think we'll eventually get there, and I think there's enough stuff to handle, source material, emotional, plot-wise, everything, that we could do something brilliant," Gimple added.
So, it sounds like there are some important conversations happening about the future of The Walking Dead, but what do fans actually want to see?
I picked the three Walking Dead shows that fans would actually want to watch in 2026 and beyond. Let's start with the continuation of The Walking Dead with many of the returning stars.
A continuation of The Walking Dead original series
It's no secret that a rather large group of The Walking Dead fandom would love to see a continuation of the original series. It just makes too much sense when you have so many characters who lived through The Walking Dead finale and the many spinoffs. You need to reunite those characters in the future.
The ending of The Walking Dead also just seems to lend itself to a continuation. We could easily check in with the world and these characters years down the line. No, the origin of the virus might not be the central inciting incident, but there are so many successful post-apocalyptic shows. And, as mentioned, it would just be cool to check in again with the characters we know and love.
Personally, I think Judith Grimes and her journey would be the most interesting story to explore because she connects the past, the present, and the future. We could see Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Danai Gurira as Michonne, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, and so many other returnees, and Judith would be the perfect character to bring the whole gang back together.
On top of that, it would give Lincoln, Reedus, and the other Walking Dead legends a chance to be featured in the series without having the extended commitment.
The Walking Dead animated series
The Walking Dead animated series is the Walking Dead series I want to see most. I know it's unlikely to happen at a place like AMC, but I really hope that it happens at some point.
We've all seen the success of Robert Kirkman's Invincible on Prime Video, and I just think that there's so much potential for animated stories like this in 2026 and beyond. Production costs are rising, and it's much harder for a network like AMC to pull off a show like The Walking Dead. Animation is a bit of a workaround, and if done correctly, it opens up The Walking Dead to a new audience.
Kirkman has been vocal about wanting to make The Walking Dead as an animated series in the past, and I know fans would get behind it if that ever came to fruition.
The cool thing about The Walking Dead as an animated series is that they could do an incredibly authentic adaptation. The series changed a lot of Kirkman's series, so an animated series would feel fresh to a lot of fans who watched the AMC series, too.
The origin of the Wildfire Virus in another location
For me, and I think a lot of fans would agree with this, it would be really interesting to go all the way back to the beginning of this story and the early days of the Wildfire virus outside of the American South and Los Angeles. We already saw those stories play out in The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.
There are so many other places around the globe that would be perfect for another Walking Dead series. We've already seen Daryl Dixon explore things in Europe, but that's such a limited window of time. I would love to see the origins of the outbreak in Spain, France, or the United Kingdom.
I have some questions about whether AMC would actually be interested in that as opposed to another US-based series. The Pacific Northwest is the perfect location for a new Walking Dead series. You could film in Vancouver, British Columbia, or other parts of Canada, like The Last of Us, and bring that part of the world to life. It's beautiful and vast, which is the perfect setting for a new Walking Dead series.
You could even connect the series to the original shows and spinoffs by introducing some of the original characters. I think we could all see Daryl hopping on his motorcycle and heading out west.
Those are my top three picks for new Walking Dead spinoffs! Will any of them actually happen? There are only a few people in the world who have an idea of what's possible with The Walking Dead franchise and its future. Hopefully, we'll learn more about the future of the franchise very soon.
Dead City season 3 premieres on Sunday, July 26, on AMC and AMC+, followed by Daryl Dixon season 4 sometime later this year.
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