AMC's The Walking Dead franchise has successfully managed to carry on beyond the original series. It's an impressive feat considering that show ran for 11 successful seasons - despite the departure of main character Rick Grimes in the ninth season - and still managed to finish on a satisfying note that didn't completely alienate its audience. It's a rare thing in today's day and age but the TWD mothership did it while also ensuring its future in the form of spinoffs.
Yes, the TWD Universe continued in three offshoots that starred major characters from the original show: Dead City brought back Lauren Cohan's Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, Daryl Dixon featured Norman Reedus' titular protagonist and Melissa McBride's Carol Peletier, and The Ones Who Live was headlined by the big returnees as Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira brought Rick and Michonne's story to a close.
Quie simply: There was life for the TWD Universe beyond The Walking Dead. However, a new report suggests that this chapter may also be coming to a close for the franchise.
Dead City will reportedly end with season 3, according to insiders
According to well-renowned industry insider The Beyond Reporter, the upcoming third season of The Walking Dead: Dead City will be the show's last. The scooper, who has successfully revealed major updates surrounding Marvel Studios releases before they are made public, shared the report on social media, quickly resulting in a mixed response from fans.
While it's important to stress that AMC has not yet officially confirmed this, there has been speculation that the series might be coming to a close in the not-too-distant future. Between season 3's planned storyline and the upcoming conclusion of another TWD spinoff, fans were wondering if this might be the case - especially as it is the show that has had less of a consistent production/ release schedule.
Dead City premiered on AMC and AMC+ back in summer 2023, arriving as the first of the three new TWD Universe spinoffs. Led by Cohan's Maggie and Morgan's Negan, it placed the long-time enemies in the new setting of Manhattan as the pair had to travel to New York City to save Maggie's son Hershel from an old friend of Negan's known as The Croat. It was a resounding success that set streaming records at the time of its release and, very easily, earned a second season renewal.
A new adventure began two years later in season 2 that saw Maggie forced to return to New York by the New Babylon Federation Marshals, unbeknownst to her that Hershel came too. Meanwhile, Negan was forced to parade around as the new leader of The Croat and The Dama's group, returning to his previous villainous persona to do so. Although it wasn't as well-received as the first season (with fand less eager about the long wait between seasons), it did set up an interesting third installment.
That third season will see Maggie, Negan, and Perlie Armstrong attempt to build back a better New York, sticking around to undo the damage that The Croat and The Dama have done. This sounds like a resolution to both of the main characters' arcs, because two people who spent the past decade locked in a high-stakes feud over Negan's brutal killing of Maggie's husband Glenn might actually work together to create something hopeful. It allows the TWD Universe to recycle the notion of redemption for Negan, who had seemingly achieved a semblance of that in the series finale of The Walking Dead, while also getting Maggie back to the more hopeful iteration we saw in that episode, too.
If this does prove to be the case, it could serve as a fitting conclusion for Dead City - which, honestly, would be a fine place for the show to end. We knew heading into that one that the concept would be somewhat limited due to the aged feud between its main characters, the potential undoing of their peace in the original show's ending, and the fact that they would eventually have to go back to their respective settlements. So this would be a believable conclusion. The issue comes from what a potential third and final season would look like for the TWD Universe as a whole.
Dead City is currently the last TWD show standing; ending it would risk ending the franchise
Until AMC makes an official announcement about the future of Dead City, it shall be classed as an ongoing series. Right now, season 3 is just the third season - not the final one. And the thing that actually gives this school of thought some weight is the fact that, if it were the final season, AMC would have likely announced it in the same way that they did with Daryl Dixon's upcoming fourth and final season. And yet, if it is the final season of the show, it leaves the future of the TWD Universe very, very unclear.
Right now, Dead City is the only TWD series with no definitive end in sight. We know that Daryl Dixon will end with its upcoming fourth season, which has already been confirmed for a 2026 release date. Meanwhile, The Ones Who Live was confirmed to be a miniseries when it aired / streamed in 2024, meaning that its single season was as far as that particular Rick and Michonne story needed to go. So, if Dead City really is ending with its third season, then there will be no ongoing TWD shows - for the first time since 2010.
Where does that leave the franchise? In a very interesting place, that's for sure. The TWD spinoffs era was billed as the next chapter of The Walking Dead Universe, and that's exactly what it has become. But for it to end in 2026 / 2027 with no clear indicator of whether there will be anymore shows in that saga seems, well, premature. We knew they wouldn't last forever, but for none of the shows to make it past three-four seasons seems surprising - especially as they haven't contributed to the overall TWD narrative (despite how great they are as standalone stories).
The good news is that, even if this chapter of the TWD Universe does come to an end, it likely won't be the end for the franchise. AMC's Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead Universe, Scott M. Gimple, previously revealed that there have been discussions about continuing the franchise in other ways, with options such as more international spinoffs even coming up.
The most interesting option, however, is the potential of a long-awaited spinoff reunion crossover that would bring the stars of the three recent spinoffs together for one last hurrah. Andrew Lincoln did tease a that discussion about a return as Rick is ongoing, so that could be for that. At least that's what fans are hoping - and it's understandable. While the series finale of TWD was a solid episode of television that didn't outrage too many people, it lacked stakes because of the spinoffs it was setting up - and therefore it lacked some closure. Bringing everyone back together for a miniseries designed for wrapping up the story once and for all would certainly allow the story of The Walking Dead to go out on a high.
Again, it's important to note that nothing is official at this point in time. Both Dead City and Daryl Dixon will be back for new seasons in the near-future and, while we know that Daryl will be bowing out with this one, Dead City's future has yet to be officially confirmed by AMC. We'll likely get more information from the cable network's annual panel at San Diego Comic-Con. Who knows, if there is a next chapter of the TWD Universe, the announcements might just be made there!
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