With New York Comic Con around the corner, fans of The Walking Dead have a lot they're hoping to hear. While the main show is done and has been completed for several years, there is so much more to this Walking Dead universe that we still haven’t gotten the chance to explore, including the things we want to hear.
From characters returning to major announcements, here are the three things we hope to hear from The Walking Dead’s NYCC panel on Oct. 9, 2026.
A premiere date for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 4
I think the biggest thing fans are hoping for from this panel is some update on the release date for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. We’ve already gotten the first teaser for season 4, featuring Daryl (Norman Reedus) in a hospital, with terrifying-looking zombies that make us wonder what the heck is going on. Plenty of theories are already floating around.
However, all we really know so far about when we will see this chaos is that the show will premiere at some point in 2027. We know that filming is finished, so post-production is in full swing. Hopefully, now, nearly a month after the first teaser was released, we’ll get some fresh news on what to expect from season 4.
The panel's main focus is The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Melissa McBride, who plays Carol in the franchise, will join showrunner David Zabel and executive producer Scott M. Gimple for the panel. One surprisingly absent name is Norman Reedus, the main star of Daryl Dixon. It makes me wonder if he’ll join in via Zoom, because it feels a little strange that a panel focused on his show doesn’t even include the main actor.
Even so, maybe we’ll get more premiere news. Maybe we'll even get a new trailer soon, but I doubt it. If anything, we’ll be sitting there theorizing about what’s to come and how Daryl, Carol, and the whole crew will somehow get back to America—if they ever do, at this point. That is, if other side characters don’t die instantaneously anymore. That’s my one gripe with The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead: Dead City to get renewed for season 4
While the main panel will focus on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, I’m hoping we get at least a little bit of The Walking Dead: Dead City in there, mainly because I pray we get the season 4 renewal we’ve all been craving.
The Walking Dead: Dead City had its best run yet with season 3, receiving great reviews and drawing plenty of fans to watch Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) evolve in their friendship. Season 3 certainly marked the end of an era for these two, as they moved from enemies to tolerated allies to, honestly, even friends.
I know, the Glenn (Steven Yeun) lover inside of me is nearly exploding at this, but that’s the life we live in this universe.
That being said, it’s been surprising that Dead City hasn’t gotten the renewal that we’ve all been looking for. Gimple, who is also an executive producer on Dead City, recently said in an interview with The Direct that the series has “a good shot” at getting renewed, citing that ratings have been good and fans have loved it:
"I would hope for everyone to hold out hope, because it's performing well in the numbers, and people are digging it. So, I think it's got a good shot at it, but it is a different time.”
“It's incredible. It's unbelievable. I can't even think... It's just such an alien sort of moment in time. When I was showrunning Walking Dead, I could calculate, 'Okay, if the ratings halve every year, we have three to four years left. 'Now, it's just... The metrics are not as cut-and-dried, and the economics are very different. So, we'll see what happens.”
To be honest, The Walking Dead: Dead City did leave off at a point where, if the show weren’t renewed, the ending could work. But at the same time, I really hope we get to continue it.
An announcement of some reunion
Am I delusional? Maybe. But I will never give up hope.
All of these Walking Dead spinoffs have to lead somewhere, and I am holding out hope that a Walking Dead reunion will occur at some point in the near future. It doesn’t have to be next year, but it could at least be teased to get fans going and spur some people to watch the spinoffs more.
Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Dani Gurira) have reunited and returned to Alexandria. Daryl and Carol will most likely make it back home by the end of their show next year. The only outlier is Maggie and Negan, whose show takes place so far in the future that it’s hard to judge timelines.
I’m not entirely sure how this will go, but I can at least hope that, at some point, we will get everyone back together one last time. Maybe in a movie? Who knows.
You can watch all 11 seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix. You can also see all the spinoffs on AMC+.
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