Maggie & Negan’s Walking Dead Spinoff Is Still Coming & There’s A Twist

The Walking Dead universe is expanding with yet another spinoff — this time, starring fan-favorites (and major frenemies) Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) and Negan Smith (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they fight to survive in new territory: Manhattan.

While the series was originally announced back in March, there’s been a significant change since then. It will no longer be called Isle of the Dead, but Dead City, AMC confirmed to Entertainment Weekly. As the magazine reports, Maggie and Negan seem “far from chummy” in fan-captured production footage, which, given the pair’s history, is to be expected.

Ahead, here’s everything we know about The Walking Dead: Dead City so far — including when you can expect the new spinoff to air on AMC and AMC+.

Dead City Plot & Cast

According to the AMC press release, Maggie and Negan will venture to a city “long ago cut off from the mainland” and taken over by the dead. In its “crumbling” state, Manhattan will be “filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror.”

Promising that the series will “reinvent” the Walking Dead universe in a press release, Morgan said, “Walkers in an urban setting has always been such a cool image, but 5th Avenue, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty? The greatest city in the world??” He adds that he’s “beyond excited.” Morgan and Cohan, who’ve previously co-starred in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, will serve as executive producers of the upcoming show.

In addition to the longtime series faves, Grey’s Anatomy alum Gaius Charles will also be joining the show, Deadline reports. (His time on the long-running medical drama doesn’t overlap with Morgan’s, though, who had a memorable arc as Denny Duquette in Season 2.) “Charles will play Perlie Armstrong,” per the outlet. “He’s confident, ruthless, and unyielding in the pursuit of what he believes is justice, with the force of his will and his menace. Perlie enjoys his work and intersperses humor with the terror he incites. This is a family man, devoted to building a safe world for his wife and daughters.”

Deadline adds that Perlie’s “journey unearths a loss he is haunted by,” and that “he has patience and resilience and walks rather than runs from his mistakes.”

Dead City Release Date

Dead City is set for a 2023 release on AMC and AMC+, and the first season will consist of six episodes.