When the news broke that The Walking Dead was due to end in 2022, the blow was softened by the second announcement that it would be followed by a spinoff starring Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride, exploring what happens next to Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier. We’re still a while from reaching the end just yet, but yesterday’s season 10 finale lightly set up the spinoff all the same.
Following the final defeat of the Whisperers, Daryl and Carol put the friction that developed between them aside and reconciled. Daryl asked her if she had got what she wanted – i.e. some sense of retribution after Alpha murdered her son, Henry, in season 9. Carol admitted, “No. And I won’t. Not really.”
“You still got me,” Daryl offered, hugging her. “New Mexico is still out there.” Carol responds, “Maybe someday. We still have things to do here.”
This is a callback to the season 10 premiere, in which the pair pondered the idea of traveling elsewhere to see if other pockets of society had survived. Carol joked they should take to the sea and become pirates, but Daryl pitched the idea of them going to New Mexico instead. “No more fighting,” he told her at the time. “Just get on the bike and go. See who’s left.”
It seems Carol isn’t quite ready to make that leap yet, but now that we know that a spinoff is on the way for them, it seems a safe bet to assume that the TWD sequel series will follow the pair as they set off for New Mexico.
This fits what little we know of the nature of the spinoff at the moment. EP Angela Kang, who will also oversee this follow-up, revealed to the Los Angeles Times that the series will be “a road show” and that she, Reedus, McBride and chief content officer Scott M. Gimple have already had discussions about how they think it should go.
We’re already starting to see how The Walking Dead will wrap up, then. But don’t forget, we’ve still got a total of 30 episodes left to enjoy over the next couple of years.