Daryl Dixon's days are numbered. Well, at least as the lead of his own show. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has been a welcome addition to the ever-expansive TWD Universe on AMC, allowing Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride to reprise their beloved franchise roles to bring Daryl and his best friend Carol Peletier to Europe. The first season featured Daryl in France before the duo reunited and they have since made their way to Spain. But those adventures will seemingly bring them back home a bit sooner than expected.
AMC has officially confirmed that Daryl Dixon will end with its fourth and final season. The announcement was made at San Diego Comic-Con, as the cast and creative team were there to promote the show's upcoming third season. It was a little surprising to fans considering that the fourth season renewal was imminent (the fans knew it was happening as it had already commenced production in Spain), so it has naturally resulted in some debate.
Was the show cancelled? Is this the end of the Walking Dead Universe as we know it? Well, it turns out that the answer is much more simple than that.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is reaching the planned culmination of its story
The cast and creative team of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon have opened up about the decision to end the series after just four seasons. Although fans have speculated that this might have marked the beginning of the end of these TWD Universe spinoffs, this isn't a cancellation; it's a decision to end the show where they initially planned to.
Speaking at the San Diego Comic-Con panel in Hall H for the show, star Norman Reedus revealed that the show always had a plan and that they're simply sticking with it, saying:
"It was always the plan to have this arc... it ends in a very specific way. David has done such a good job outlining where these characters go."
Creator David Zabel reiterated this, saying that the final season of the show is designed to "complete the story of Daryl and Carol in Spain", adding that it will be a powerful and emotional grand finale for them. But he once again said that it will be a finale for this specific part of their stories... not necessarily their whole on-screen journeys in the TWD Universe.
"It will also complete this part of the characters’ journey, the European adventure, and so, it’s the last season of this iteration of the show."
Taking all of this into account, it's clear that these spinoffs were intentionally designed to have shorter runs than their predecessors. Sure, with six to eight episode runs, they could have realistically run for many more seasons, but the larger-than-life adventures were started with an endgame in mind so that they wouldn't run the risk of running too long - a constant criticism of both the original Walking Dead (which ran for 11 seasons) and Fear The Walking Dead (which ran for eight seasons).
The Rick and Michonne-led spinoff The Ones Who Live was a miniseries, airing just one season. Daryl Dixon will complete its run with four seasons and, although Dead City has been renewed for a third season, it likely won't run past four either. With each of these spinoffs having planned-out endgames, the creative teams know the point at which the storylines should end, meaning that they get to avoid the risk of running on too long and losing sight of the reason for their existence in the first place.
Daryl Dixon may be ending, but the characters' stories will seemingly continue
The good news is that these comments go a long way in dispelling those cancellation rumors as they suggest that we will see Reedus' Daryl and McBride's Carol again in the future, implying that there are plans for them to be involved in the future of the franchise. In saying so, this also seems to confirm that there is a future for the franchise - something that has been seemingly up for debate in recent years.
Ever since The Walking Dead concluded in 2022, the future of the TWD Universe has been clearly riding on the success of these spinoffs. They have turned out to be success stories for the franchise, but if they are all reaching their natural conclusions in a shorter-than-expected time frame, where does that leave the saga? Clearly, there are plans for that.
Reedus himself said in a statement that "Daryl’s journey is far from over" while McBride teased that there is "still so much story left to tell and so much for the fans to look forward to". To top it all off, Zabel said that, although Daryl Dixon is the end of this specific story for the pair, there will likely be more adventures for them
"... what lies beyond that for these characters, we will see. I’m sure there’s plenty, and we’re always talking about it."
AMC's Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead Universe has previously teased that more stories await the TWD Universe beyond the three recent spinoffs, so we could very well be approaching the time when we find out what this next era for the franchise could look like. We're just happy to hear that there will be one.
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