According to Deadline, AMC has revealed the premiere date for upcoming The Walking Dead spinoff TWD: Dead City. The apocalyptic series will debut on Sunday, June 18 at 10 p.m. Eastern time, on both the AMC network and the AMC+ platform. All following episodes will air on Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
The six-episode thriller will follow The Walking Dead characters Maggie, portrayed by Lauren Cohan (The Boy, Mile 22), and Negan, portrayed by Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, Rampage), as they explore Manhattan. The area is a previously unknown location in the TWD universe and is expected to be full of “anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror.” The trailer is available below.
Cohan appeared in 144 episodes of The Walking Dead and quickly became a fan favorite for her character’s strength and bravery. Morgan, on the other hand, only boasts 95 episode appearances, but his character has forever solidified a significant role in the franchise, having been one of the most manipulative and ruthless antagonists of the entire series.
Showrunner Eli Jorné (Wilfred, Heels) and Cohen recently discussed the horror show at a panel at WonderCon.
Jorné says of the setting — “It’s The Walking Dead like we’ve never seen it before. We haven’t really lived in a city like this. It’s New York; there’s skyscrapers up to the sky and a million and a half walkers. And for characters like Maggie and Negan, who’ve been running through the woods for a long time, it’s just a whole new world that’s just extremely claustrophobic, scary, and also, as you’ll discover, has pockets of survivors, you’ll get to see all the strange new ways they live in the apocalypse, it’s definitely like nothing you’ve seen before.”
Fans of the series were surprised to see Maggie and Negan working together in the anticipated spinoff. For those unaware, Negan viciously murdered Maggie’s husband, Glenn, portrayed by Steven Yeun (Minari, Okja) in season seven.
Cohan addresses the situation, saying, “It’s interesting because we see a very unprocessed level of trauma that we know happened between Maggie and Negan. In Dead City, we really get a chance to [ask], ‘What is this? What does it take to move through it?’ And more than anything, it’s a chance for us to be forced together on this mission. The tension and unmovable things are still very present. We’ve seen them intersect so often, but in this show, it’s really this tunnel that they’re trapped in to face things they may have run away from, more so what Maggie has run away from and what Negan [‘s presence] brings up for her. It’s like an exercise in intimacy with the worst person.”
Jorné adds: “It’s the next chapter in the story of Maggie and Negan, and so in that sense, it’s a lot of grief, trauma, and loss on both sides and how do you navigate that? How does Maggie look in Negan’s face every day and remember what he did to the love of her life? That’s still a huge part of the show. For anybody who’s watched The Walking Dead all these years and connected to those characters, we’re continuing the story, growing it, evolving it, and deepening it in a whole new landscape.”
The cast includes Gaius Charles (Salt, The Messenger), Jonathan Higginbotham (Shining Vale, The Blacklist), Mahina Napoleon (NCIS: Hawai’i), Trey Santiago-Hudson (Vineyards, You Hurt My Feelings), and Charlie Solis (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Everything Will Be Okay).