It may be the end of the road for season 3 of Dead City, but the stars of the series already have an idea of what they’d want for season 4—if it happens.
In an interview with TV Insider for the finale of Dead City season 3, “Tenebrae,” Lauren Cohan (Maggie) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan) spoke about everything that had happened so far and what could potentially occur next. The biggest is that Morgan wants nothing more than to see Maggie take on that leadership position, more so than she has ever done before, especially with Negan by her side:
“I would love to see Maggie lead. I think that there’s been a lead-up for a long time, since [she] led Hilltop, and a lot has changed since then, and a lot of growing has been done by everybody. But I think Negan’s always known that she’s the one to lead this new world. And they can start in New York—and it shall. But I think at this point, Negan’s going to do whatever he can to back her play—and he’s got her back. She probably doesn’t trust that [though].”
And honestly, for good reason. Negan has been a bit of a loose cannon in season 3. While it started strong with Negan and Maggie working together to take down the Dama, things started to take a turn for the worse when Negan went against Renata’s (Aimee Garcia) “no-kill” policy, where he killed the Dama.
Then, once Renata found out, she and Negan were at odds for a bit. The final moment that pushed her over the edge was when Negan point-blank shot Fabian (Michael Emery), a member of the New York community who blamed Maggie for everything that had gone wrong and wanted to murder her.
But at the end of the season, Maggie saves Negan time and time again, and he does it for her in return. She says they’re forever entwined—so much so that she makes him her head of security—and says she has a job for him to do, which we don’t know yet. All we know is that they are trying to take back the entire city.
And Morgan is right—that's going to need a heck of a leader.
Cohan continued to talk about Maggie leading, saying that her interactions with Hershel and the group this season really made her grow into this potential future leader after everything they had gone through:
“There was a retraction for Maggie this season in not wanting [to lead]. Now it’s really understanding what it really is to do it. And that having your kid makes you stronger at it. Finding the connections and the similarities makes you stronger at it. Something in your relationship with yourself makes you better equipped. Maggie, post the definition of ‘the farm girl,’ ‘the wife,’ ‘the warrior,’….all that stuff comes together in this actualization.”
Right now, this community just needs someone, and Maggie is the right choice. In the seventh episode, “Hourglass,” Renata (who is the leader of their community) was shot and killed by Dillard (Jimmi Simpson). It wasn't revealed until episode 8 that she had turned into a walker.
But Dillard ended up dying too, so that community now needed Maggie. We see that she’s taken control in the little bit of time shown to us after what happened in the finale. But her plans for the future are grand, which is why she’s asking Negan to help her out.
Even so, these theories might mean nothing. Dead City hasn’t been renewed yet. While the previous few seasons were renewed fairly quickly, season 4 hasn’t been renewed yet, and the studio hasn’t offered any confirmations or hints. We know that there will be at least one other Walking Dead spinoff next year—The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—but so far, it looks like it’s the only one confirmed.
It would be a shame if the show didn’t get renewed. Season 3’s reviews have been stellar, with many praising it as the best season so far. Sure, it had some low points, but the story was overall really interesting and took the zombie apocalypse to a whole new level. I personally loved a lot of the risks they were taking.
I still don’t like that another important side character was killed off so fast. That seems to be a trend with these shows all the time. I wish we'd seen Renata a little more. And the weird Maggie/Negan shipping stuff that I’ve seen online has been quite strange.
But at the end of the day, it was a good season, and I’d like to see the story continue. But only time will tell if we truly get to see Maggie become the leader we all know her to be—and if Negan will back her up completely.
You can watch all three seasons of Dead City on AMC+. You can watch the first two seasons on Netflix.
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