The trailer for The Walking Dead: Dead City is yet another spin-off of the original The Walking Dead, continuing the story of Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who is forced to team up with her old enemy, the bat-swinging psychopath, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The pair have to fight their way through a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, battling old enemies and surviving against hordes of the undead, all to rescue Maggie’s son, Hershel.
Hershel has been taken to Manhattan and long-time fans of the original show know that going into the cities is a bad idea. It’s like Rick said back in season one about Atlanta: “It belongs to the dead now.”
The new series will be released by AMC on the 18th of June this year and fans are curious to know if this will be another poorly received spin-off from The Walking Dead universe. Fear The Walking Dead was released in 2015 to mixed reviews and 2020’s The Walking Dead: World Beyond gathered an extremely mild 4.4/10 on IMDB.
Past spin-offs of ‘The Walking Dead’ have been criticised for their plots, however, fans have commented that this series looks like it could be much more interesting than others. TWD fans are sure to be treated to plenty of references to the original show, with the only obvious problem being how Maggie and Negan could even think of teaming up. The small issue of him killing Maggie’s husband seems to have been swept under the rug. Perhaps Negan telling her, “You need me,” means she can only get her son back with his help? This is definitely something that the show needs to cover in more than a quick opening scene.
In typical TWD fashion, the key to getting this right could be in the gory execution. While the trailer shows us a lot of dynamic city shots and some intriguing enemies, it’s a dead ringer for an MCU trailer, complete with plenty of action shots, and not much else to think about. While some fans hope Dead City will revive TWD’s franchise as a whole, others say the poor CGI that replaces the practical effects used in the original series doesn’t look too promising.
All in all, while we look forward to anything that AMC will throw our way from TWD, the trailer leaves us feeling like one of the zombies roaming New York’s streets, looking for any life or brains, even when it might not be there.
The Walking Dead: Dead City will premiere the 18th of June on AMC. You can also stream all episodes of The Walking Dead on Netflix, AMC+, Amazon, and more.
Words by Finn Macdiarmid
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