It's safe to say that The Walking Dead has been around for a long time. If you want to talk about the original series, you're talking 12 years. But the overarching franchise that it spawned (and now belongs to)? We're coming up on 16 now. Yeah, the TWD Universe has stood the test of time.
But even standing the test of time involves sidestepping the rot. From time-to-time, the rot may set in, but if you can shake it off, you can reinvent, reboot, or even revive yourself. That's what the Walking Dead franchise has done many times before, as the original series experienced plenty of highs and lows throughout its decade-plus run. And now, the franchise needs to do it again.
With two legends from TWD's past on their way back to the franchise in one particular spinoff, now is the chance for both the shared universe and that spinoff to shake off the rot. How? By revisiting its roots and setting itself up for the future.
Dead City season 3's legendary comebacks could reinvent the show
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 3 is on the horizon and this is a season that has a unique opportunity to reinvent itself as the face of the TWD Universe going forward. While it currently is one of them, the Maggie and Negan spinoff hasn't managed to break out in the way that the Daryl and Carol-led Daryl Dixon has or that 2024 Rick and Michonne series The Ones Who Live did. The impending end of Daryl Dixon might allow it to step into the spotlight. And it might be able to do that with the help of two returning legends.
Fans are ready for the return of Seth Hoffman, who steps into the world of Dead City as its new showrunner. His involvement in the show was announced ahead of San Diego Comic-Con last year, when it was revealed that he would be replacing previous showrunner Eli Jorné. And, as fans of the franchise know, Hoffman has produced some absolute TWD bangers - making him the perfect candidate to steer Dead City in the direction that it needs to go.
Hoffman previously worked as a showrunner on The Walking Dead itself throughout its fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons - a time that many consider to be the absolute peak of the show. Better yet, he also wrote the episode "Too Far Gone" - which is widely considered one of the original series' most powerful episodes. The midseason finale of season 4, it's renowned for its high emotional stakes, ensuring that we as viewers were left feeling all of the feels after it concluded.
While Dead City is built on the hatred that Maggie continues to feel for Negan after he killed Glenn all those years ago, it's run somewhat out of emotional stakes pretty quickly. The fact that the pair essentially buried the hatchet in the series finale of The Walking Dead only for the spinoff to have to undo all of that for the sake of story has left it without anywhere new to go. And with that, its entire premise is built on a feud that the original series explored in every way imaginable. Hoffman, known for episodes with real emotional punch, might just be the person to bring Dead City back to the stakes department.
As for where those emotional punches could come in Dead City? That's where the other comeback comes in. Set photos from production on the third season have confirmed that Emily Kinney will be reprising her role from The Walking Dead as Beth Greene - Maggie's sister who was shockingly killed during the fifth season of the original series. It's unclear exactly how that comeback will come about, but from the looks of things, it will be some kind of dream sequence / alternate reality sequence in which Maggie and Negan meet Beth in Central Park in a world in which the zombie apocalypse never happened.
This obviously won't be a long-term role as Beth is still dead in the TWD timeline of events and - post-apocalypse or no post-apocalypse - The Walking Dead isn't about to start rewriting its own timeline. But Beth doesn't need to be alive for this particular story to carry some real emotional weight. After all, she was Maggie's family, so she's always going to have that connection. And, honestly, it's refreshing to see the TWD Universe leaning into that aspect of her family for the first time in years.
Glenn's death understandably dominated Maggie's character journey throughout the backend of the show; it continues to dominate it into Dead City. While there is no issue with that - especially given how much she loved her husband and still misses him - a lot of TWD fans are ready for Maggie to explore other elements of her character journey. And considering that Dead City is set almost two decades after Glenn's death in the TWD timeline, the criticisms about the spinoff's lack of original storytelling are understandable too.
However, if the spinoff opts to place a focus on Maggie's grief over her sister's loss, that could mark a significant change of pace. Sure, leaning into more grief or sadness for Maggie isn't exactly new (or fair for the character, really), but it does provide Dead City with an opportunity for some fresh storytelling that is still tied to the legendary original series. Considering that Beth died years before the group even encountered Negan, it feels like there is at least some potential there to revisit a story that feels fresh by almost all stretches of the imagination.
Maggie never really got a chance to grieve Beth or even deal with the fact that her baby sister was gone. The show has moved so far on from the character that it doesn't even feel like there any characters who knew her left in the franchise. But there are, and Maggie is at the top of that list. By revisiting a story beat that the franchise hasn't so much as looked at in over a decade, Dead City has a unique opportunity to enhance its main character by using a completely different Walking Dead storyline.
Fans widely believe this to be Hoffman's idea, which makes complete sense when you consider that Beth was a main character around his stint on The Walking Dead. And honestly, it's a work of genius. Giving Maggie a storyline outside of Dead City's initial concept - outside of revenge for Glenn, hatred for Negan, sadness for son Hershel - proves that there is more scope to this show beyond its initial, repetitive concept. And if Dead City does end up becoming the sole show in the franchise for the foreseeable, that's exactly what it needs to show us.