The Walking Deadcame to a close almost a year ago, with many of its characters heading in different directions. Their destinations? Spin-offs, of course, and lots of them. With the mother show well and truly in the rearview mirror,Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon is set to make his triumphant return to our screens very soon, andafter the success that wasThe Walking Dead: Dead City, one can’t help but get excited aboutAMC’s next Walker-infested spin-off.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixonwill see the titular character in Paris after “a bunch of bad decisions” has led him there. It’s far from where we last saw him in the flagship series’ final moments, a mystery that will certainly unravel throughout the spin-off. For now, all we can do is speculate and look back at where we left off with the iconic character.
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Aside fromJeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan, Daryl Dixon is probably the character who sees the most growth throughout their time onThe Walking Dead. One of the few characters to have featured across all eleven seasons, Dixon became a fan-favorite member of the Grimes clan from the moment he stormed onto our screens in search of a deer in Season 1, Episode 3, “Tell It to the Frogs.” Having grown up in an abusive household, under the shadow of his criminal older brother, Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker), Daryl had never seen the power of a true leader or the significance of caring for others – something that changed when he met Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). AsThe Walking Deadcontinued, Daryl slowly found himself forming strong connections with the show’s ensemble of characters, looking up to Grimes’ leadership and finding refuge and a best friend inMelissa McBride’s Carol Peletier, who had come from a similar background herself. Slowly, the character grew leadership abilities of his own, even taking over for a short stint as the new leader of the Saviors after the war with Negan in Season 8, a role which he soon passed on to Carol.
The crossbow-wielding Southernerfaced many challenges throughout his time onThe Walking Dead, often coming in the form of a significant loss. As a character who barely knew how to care for anyone in the show’s early days, it hurt even more whenever Daryl lost someone who he’d finally learned to care for.The loss ofEmily Kinney’s Bethafter their short but impactful time together marked a turning point in his character as he headed on the road to leadership – but that wasn’t without a bit of suffering in the process. Even more so, after the disappearance and presumed death of Rick, Daryl moved away from the communities, living with his dog in the forest, hell-bent on finding Rick’s body. He regressed as a character, but it’s Carol who pulled him out of it, just before a new threat occurred as the mysterious Whisperers began to appear.
Daryl formed a close bond with a young girl named Lydia (Cassady McClincy), the daughter ofthe Whisperers’ villainous leader, Alpha(Samantha Morton). Having recognized Lydia’s abusive relationship with her mother, Daryl empathizes with her, truly showing how far his character has come. War broke out between the two factions which saw Daryl at odds with his bestie Carol, but eventually, the war was settled, and the two continued their friendship, a plot line that had become one of the central narratives of the show.
Season 11, the final season ofThe Walking Dead, saw yet another war, this time with the Commonwealth, a community so advanced that it had almost returned to a pre-apocalypse lifestyle — people were even getting paid to work! Early on, before conflicts grew, the Alexandrians were working together with the Commonwealth. Daryl began a job as a soldier in their military, earning money forRick’s kids whom he’d become the father figure for. Unfortunately, this meant he had to exchange his poncho for the knockoff Stormtrooper attire, but beggars can’t be choosers in the apocalypse, right?
As simmering tensions between the communities began to boil, a Walker horde marched its way toward the Commonwealth,with their slowly evolving intelligencebeing enough for them to be able to enter through the main gate. As the community’s wealth-obsessed leader Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) barricaded the rich from the poor, leaving people to die as the horde closed in, Daryl stood up, stating that they deserve better than this, and chillingly contradicting Rick’s iconic line from early in the show, stating, “we ain’t the walking dead…” Ultimately, this convinced the Commonwealth to open up their gates, letting in the survivors, who then came up with an explosive plot to end the horde. Daryl standing up at this moment is a true testament to how far Reedus’ character has come. Despite not wanting to be a leader, Daryl can’t help but lead from the shadows, constantly fighting for what is right.
Alas,The Walking Deadentered its final moments, where Daryl bid farewell to Rick’s kids as he embarked on a journey to find their father and his best friend – who is off having his own adventures with Michonne (Danai Gurira) in yet another spin-off. In one final, lovely scene, Daryl and Carol say their goodbyes, sharing a platonic “I love you.”11 seasons worth of character workhad led to this moment, where Daryl had finally learned to open himself up and be vulnerable to those around him. With that, Daryl rides off on his new adventure… and towardsThe Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.
Daryl Dixon will forever have one of the biggest legacies onThe Walking Dead, so it’s only right that he gets a spin-off of his own. When the spin-off picks things up nowhere near where we left off with Daryl — on the other side of the planet, in fact — it’ll be an exciting watch to discover what exactly has set Daryl on this European vacation. After all, more Norman Reedus is never a bad thing.
