The Walking Dead might have ended back in 2022, but the universe continues to expand thanks to its spinoffs. Chief among them is Dead City which follows Maggie and Negan in New York City (streaming with a Netflix subscription). Season 3 is coming in July, and both Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan seem thrilled about the major changes coming to their characters' dynamic. Let's break it all down.
After its premiere, some fans were surprised by how much they enjoyed The Walking Dead: Dead City. On top of providing a new adventure in the apocalypse, the show is also emotionally impactful thanks to Maggie's history with Negan, who famously killed her husband Glenn. During an interview with EW, Morgan confirmed that they're no longer going to be at odds in Season 3, saying:
We needed this relationship to move on between Maggie and Negan. And I was desperate for it. Negan kept doing things like saving her, saving her kid, and yet she just hated me. I just think we all were ready to move on. It's not just gonna be, ‘I'm gonna kill you when I get the chance,’ you know?
That's certainly going to be a new color for Dead City's pair of protagonists. Their relationship is a fascinating one, and we've watched as Maggie has tried to kill Negan, betray him, and eventually become his ally. Season 3 will show them finally moving on from the violence of their shared history, and it should be fascinating to see how that changes the action of the Walking Dead spinoff.
In the same interview, Maggie actress Lauren Cohan also spoke about the change in her relationship with Negan in the third season of Dead City. In her words:
If I'm not gonna kill him, I gotta live with him and I have to see him for who he really is. And that involves a lot of healing for both their relationship and for her personally. The thing that's different this year is her vulnerability of saying, ‘I need your help.’ And that's something she's never tried with him. She's coerced him and manipulated him into helping her, and he's done it either knowingly or unknowingly to repay a debt, but this is the first time that she's led with more openness with him.
This shift of dynamic is just one reason why I can't wait to see what happens when The Walking Dead: Dead City returns to the small screen in July. Then there's the cliffhanger about Hershel, who has remained in New York with The Dama instead of staying with his own mother. Plus there's the ongoing conflict with New Babylon. Clearly there are plenty of narrative threads to pull from.
The Walking Dead: Dead City will return to AMC on July 26th as part of the 2026 TV schedule. We'll just have to see how well Negan and Maggie work together now that they're leaving their history in the past.
