Great news for UK-based fans of The Walking Dead Universe, as there was an exciting press release from Sky to confirm that Daryl Dixon season 3 will be dropping in the UK exclusively on Sky Max and NOW TV on October 24. This is in the continuing pre-existing deal between Sky and AMC to deliver content overseas to fans. And the great news is, this deal is continuing on as strong as ever.
As TWDU continues to grow, fans have been treated to a number of stories and spin-offs based around numerous fan favorite characters. From Rick and Michonne, to Negan and Maggie - there has been a huge amount of content for us to absorb. No complaints about that!
The third chapter of Daryl Dixon is set to hit screens in the UK very soon, and creatives behind the series, Dan Percival and David Zabel, joined me, as well as a small number of other journalists, at a round table during the Global Press Day in Madrid, Spain. Madrid also sets the location for this season, along with a quick visit to London. And I was super curious to question how the World's natural elements are reflected as something significantly more in this season.
Exclusive: David Zabel and Daniel Percival Daryl Dixon season 3 interview
As the roundtable began, Percival and Zabel greeted us all in cheery form. Both were eager to talk about the processes behind this season and behind-the-scenes insights and stories. Having always been someone who not only loves Media but TWDU as a franchise, I really wanted to ask them something in-depth to open a metaphorical floodgate to the deeper meaning of the story.
This season puts a strong focus on the ocean, with the sea itself becoming a major obstacle for both Daryl and Carol. But did you intentionally use elements like the storm in episode one and like the boat repair with all the walkers coming out of the sea, did you intentionally put that in to create a new sense of danger, making the shoreline feel like a place of broken security? Or was it like what you just touched on, was that just genuinely the weather and the challenges you had to face?
Both begin to laugh.
Zabel: No, I mean it, you know, we wanted to create obstacles to that, to their ability to get home, right? And so, we want them constantly trying and struggling to get home because that's sort of where the story's at. And so, the idea that they find this little sailboat through this one guy in England and try to sail it was very compelling to us. It was different than what we had seen in terms of their previous efforts. And then, of course, it landed in a place in Galicia called the coast of death.
So, it did sort of lend itself to what you're kind of getting at, which is like, that's a dangerous place. That's a dangerous piece of coastal land and ocean there. And then, with the zombies coming out of the ocean, they go to try to get the repair done. That's just one more example of us trying to come up with novel ways to find where the dangers are in the world. You know, that was very difficult.
Dan can talk about that, to shoot, but we were always trying to come up with ways that feel consistent with the history of The Walking Dead Universe, but not repetitive. You know, how, what's a new way, what's a new environment, what's a new way that walkers are being used? So, coming out of the water when they're trying to get the rudder for the boat, that was just one more example of that. And the shooting of that was, that was a place, the going back to the challenge question, that was one of those sequences that was much more challenged ultimately than I ever anticipated.
Percival laughs once more.
Percival: Yeah, it was very difficult. I mean, there were no easy environments, you know, when with this show, we're outside 90% of the time, we're just in the environment, in the World. And with whatever it's going to throw at you, extreme heat, sometimes snow and cold and ice, sometimes, you know, hurricane force winds and downpours.
Which is wonderful too, capturing that on film. The ocean, though, you make a very interesting point, you know, the ocean symbolizes so much, not just to all of us humans, but is both a threat and its hope. You know, to the west, when the sun sets on that, when Daryl's looking west, he's looking home.
It's a boundary and a connection at the same time, a barrier to cross, and I think being one on the ocean and starting the journey on the ocean and being out in the open ocean sets that scene. And for the whole season, we never leave that coastline where the boat is built, and that hope exists the whole time.
But you can imagine what it was like putting a boat literally on a beach for weeks and weeks and weeks with all the changes in weather, the tide, everything else.
Zabel: Safe to say anything with a boat was really hard. It was really, really hard. If it has a boat in it, it was not easy because even the stuff with Stephen.
Percival agrees.
Zabel: The stuff of them on the sailboat was incredibly difficult to shoot with Stephen Merchant, and it came out beautifully. But it was tough, but it also goes to what you were saying. I think you get a feeling when the three of them are on that boat. That there's a freedom and a hopefulness that then gets frustrated, of course
Percival: Yes, and it's there throughout the whole show, the whole season. That promise of escape and that barrier preventing them at the same time.
Sky is the home to all that a fan of The Walking Dead Universe in the UK could ask for. You can catch up on: Daryl Dixon 3, Dead City, The Ones Who Live, and the flagship series on Sky Max and NOW TV.Daryl Dixon 3 will air in the UK exclusively on October 24 on Sky Max and NOW TV.