‘The Walking Dead’ Franchise Somehow Limps On With New Spinoff ‘Isle of the Dead’
“Isle of the Dead” will star Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan and be the fifth new series in the zombie franchise. After 11 seasons, the OG drama dies for good later this year.
Josh Stringer/AMC
The walkers are dragging their feet into yet another Walking Dead spinoff over at AMC. Two famed characters of the OG show have earned their own series with another alum set as showrunner. Isle of the Dead, which will center on Lauren Cohan’s Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan, marks AMC’s fifth spinoff of Robert Kirkman’s beloved sci-fi horror series. (Yes, that’s right, fifth spinoff.)
The twist? This iteration of the zombie apocalypse will cruise on over to Manhattan, with Negan and Maggie navigating the many bites taken out of the Big Apple. Eli Jorné, a longtime writer for The Walking Dead, has been tapped as showrunner for the drama thanks to his overall deal with AMC Studios. Isle of the Dead will be overseen by The Walking Dead Universe’s content chief Scott M. Gimple. Cohan and Morgan will also executive produce.
As noted, The Walking Dead Universe is clearly no stranger to spinoffs. All these years later, you might call it the walking dead of television franchises.
The original saga, which is based on Kirkman’s graphic novels of the same name, has run for 11 seasons on AMC, initially debuting in 2010. Since its release, the franchise has spawned anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead, Fear of the Walking Dead, limited series Walking Dead: World Beyond, and is set to release an untitled Norman Reedus-Melissa McBride drama from TWD vet Angela Kang. And yet, fans are still hungry for more, ready to sink their teeth into any new installations of the franchise as the flagship series wraps its final season.
Fans of the show will remember Maggie’s much-adored entrance in Season 2 when she joined the show as a recurring character. She briefly departed TWD Universe in 2019 to star in the short-lived ABC series Whiskey Cavalier, eventually returning to the series in Season 9. Spinoff talks have been lingering since her exit and reunion with the show. Negan, on the other hand, has been a regular villain on the show since the Season 5 finale.
More specific plot details are still under wraps, but get ready to feast your eyes on decaying New York scenery as the show’s premiere date inches closer. Isle of the Dead will launch in 2023, right after The Walking Dead wraps its eleventh and final season on AMC. (Final season? This is The Walking Dead…as if we really believe that.)
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