Walking Dead fans have been counting down the days to July and it has officially arrived. This is expected to be a big month for the TWD Universe on all fronts, as it's likely that the franchise will host its annual Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con to tease audiences with what's coming from the franchise. And among everything coming from the franchise is none other than the third season of The Walking Dead: Dead City.
Arriving on July 26, it will see old enemies Maggie Rhee and Negan attempt to officially put their past behind them as they look to build a better future for the survivors of New York City and the wider Manhattan area. The first trailer for the upcoming episodes promises a much lighter, hopeful feel than the previous two and that likely has something to do with a major return to the franchise.
Walking Dead veteran Seth Hoffman's Dead City season 3 arrives this month
When AMC announced that Seth Hoffman would be taking over as the new showrunner of Dead City for its third season, there was a nostalgic excitement from audiences around the world. Hoffman is like family to the TWD fans, serving as one of the primary executive producers for the original Walking Dead series during the height of its popularity - overseeing seasons 4, 5, and 6. And, in many ways, those are considered among the best of the show's 11 seasons.
The fourth installment, in particular, is widely considered peak Walking Dead, with the Hoffman-penned midseason finale often listed among the best episodes that the series has ever produced. As someone who was literally shaking watching that episode back in 2013, I can see why it's still considered in a class of its own. "Too Far Gone" is a masterclass in intensity and emotion, delivering quality and stakes that would have made it worthy of a season finale.
Naturally, his return to the franchise after a decade away has fans excited about what he will do. While Dead City is a popular addition to the TWD Universe, fans often rank it in the lower end of the newer spinoffs, with many feeling that Maggie and Negan's dark history has once again pigeonholed it into a mood, tone, and storyline that it can't fully break out of. The season 2 finale - in which Maggie officially made her choice between exacting revenge on her longtime enemy for what he did to her husband Glenn all those years before or letting go of the past and moving on with her life - saw the pair officially agree to move on and build a better future for a new community together has suggested that we'll be going in a very different direction in season 3.
The first trailer for the third season officially corroborates this theory. Maggie and Negan are at the center of a battle to reshape the future of Manhattan, forging new alliances as they do so. However, they will also attempt to find a new normal where they are actually on speaking terms that might even involve pleasantries and jokes. It's certainly going to take a lot of getting used to, but the reception to that potential new tone from a lot of viewers thus far has been positive as it feels like Dead City - the spinoff that was specifically stuck in the past - may have found a way of truly moving into the future.
Hoffman may have been at the center of this storytelling, as he revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that, even with their history (and Maggie's understandable resentment of him), he and the creative team were "all excited to imagine what could it possibly look like for these two characters to genuinely be working together for a common goal."
While some fans are understandably upset about the idea of Maggie and Negan ever being even remotely friendly towards each other given the latter's heinous actions in The Walking Dead, there is a sense of change for Dead City that has created some excitement among the fandom. While the spinoff's future beyond season 3 is unclear, Hoffman's influence has already been felt through just a simple two-minute trailer. And if there are more seasons beyond this, the series' new approach extends its lifespan by a significant amount - reshaping the status quo and giving it (along with Maggie and Negan) a new core goal to work towards.
Hoffman isn't the only major returnee from the original Walking Dead series expected to appear on Dead City season 3 as set photos - and subsequent comments from creatives involved - have confirmed another major one will take place on-screen in a single episode. You know that this episode could very well be a highlight of not just Dead City season 3 but the entire Walking Dead franchise if they pull it off.
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 3 airs on AMC and streams on AMC+ on Sunday, July 26. The season premiere will kick off a weekly release format, with new episodes coming out on Sundays after that.
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