Walking Dead’s Daryl & Carol Spin-Off Loses Carol…
Well… this is an interesting turn of events for ‘Walking Dead’ fans… The much talked about “Daryl & Carol” spin-off series is now going to be a “Daryl” series, as producers decide “Carol” is no longer required!
The spin-off was announced back in 2020 as a series which would see Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride reprise their roles as best friends Daryl & Carol, and see them off on new adventures once the main show ended. However, according to reports, there has been a creative change of direction for the spin-off, and it will focus purely on Daryl, rather than the two original ‘Walking Dead’ cast members. The decision to exclude the character of Carol appears to be a creative and logistical one.
“Melissa McBride has given life to one of the most interesting, real, human and popular characters in The Walking Dead Universe. Unfortunately, she is no longer able to participate in the previously announced spin-off focused on the Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier characters, which will be set and filmed in Europe this summer and premiere next year. Relocating to Europe became logistically untenable for Melissa at this time. We know fans will be disappointed by this news, but The Walking Dead Universe continues to grow and expand in interesting ways and we very much hope to see Carol again in the near future,” AMC said in a statement.
This was the first spin-off to be announced featuring cast members from the main show. A second series, ‘Isle of the Dead’, featuring Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan and Maggie, was announced in March 2022. Interestingly, although the “Daryl & Carol” series was announced first, we have a lot more information about ‘Isle of the Dead’, which sees the unlikely duo head into Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland. They also released artwork for the Negan and Maggie series, whereas the “Daryl & Carol” show hasn’t even got a proper title, let alone a plot description! What is interesting is that statement from AMC which mentions that Daryl will be heading to Europe!
In addition to those shows, there is the anthology series, ‘Tales of the Walking Dead‘, an episodic anthology that will feature six original, standalone stories focused on both new and established characters within the walker apocalypse. The new cast who will appear in the series includes Anthony Edwards (‘Inventing Anna,’ ‘ER’), Parker Posey (‘Lost In Space’), Terry Crews (‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’), Poppy Liu (”Hacks’, ‘Better Call Saul’) and Jillian Bell (‘Bless the Harts’). And, of course, we still have the much-anticipated “Rick Grimes” movies to come.
What isn’t clear now is what will happen moving forward, and we have questions… Have they known about Carol not being involved for a while?… In which case, has Carol lost her “plot armour” for the main show, and now could end up not surviving? Will they bring along someone else from the main show to keep Daryl company, or will it be Norman Reedus and a bunch of new cast members? Will they give Daryl a haircut? We need answers!
The new series is being co-created by ‘Walking Dead’ Overlord Scott M. Gimple and the current main ‘Walking Dead’ series showrunner Angela Kang. We’ll have to wait and see what happens!
‘The Walking Dead‘ Season 11, Part 3 (aka the final stretch!) will premiere in Autumn 2022 on AMC in the USA and on Disney+ in the UK.
