All The Upcoming Walking Dead Shows Explained

The Walking Dead has finished its 11-season run, but that does not mean the Walking Dead timeline has run out of stories, with numerous shows lurking around the corner for 2026 and beyond. The Walking Dead season 11's ending brought AMC's zombie flagship series to a close in 2022, rounding out 12 years of post-apocalyptic misery. The franchise's original spinoff, Fear The Walking Dead, is also over, airing its final episode in November 2023, while subsequent spinoff The Walking Dead: World Beyond was only ever marked for a two-season run.

The Walking Dead as a larger entity, however, is still lumbering forward. Now officially branded the "Walking Dead Universe" by AMC, TV's most famous zombie franchise is expanding, as familiar faces from the original show diverge into their own solo spinoffs. With future Walking Dead projects officially confirmed by AMC and the original series headed for AMC+ soon, the potential for additional shows has also been teased in the past few years. With numerous undead pies in the oven, so to speak, details surrounding each of AMC's upcoming The Walking Dead TV shows are in plentiful supply.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 4

Release Date TBA

When a Walking Dead spinoff centered around Maggie and Negan was first announced, it was met with a mixed response. After what Negan did to Maggie's husband, how would the series possibly justify a team-up? But when Dead City premiered in 2023, it proved to be a big hit with audiences (and it didn't brush over Maggie's long-standing hatred of Negan). Set mostly in New York City, the spinoff was successful enough to earn a renewal for season 2, which premiered in 2025. Just a couple of weeks after Dead City season 2 ended, AMC renewed the show for a third season, which premiered in July 2026.

There was a two-year hiatus between seasons 1 and 2, but Dead City season 3 only took a year from its pickup to hit the air. The series has yet to be picked up for a fourth season, but it seems likely that Dead City will continue after strong ratings and positive affirmation from AMC's higher ups. Though The Walking Dead: Dead City has been hit or miss at times for fans, the majority of the series has been a step in the right direction for the franchise, which means it's likely that AMC will continue to produce the series in the future.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 4

Release Date TBA

After logistical conflicts kept Melissa McBride out of the first season of Norman Reedus' Walking Dead spinoff, she was finally able to join as a series regular in season 2. Dubbed The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol, this season brought Carol to France to reunite with Daryl. Daryl and Carol's European adventures continued during a third season, which premiered on September 7, 2025. Ahead of the season 3 premiere, AMC renewed Daryl Dixon for a fourth and final season that will conclude the spinoff story and likely bring the duo back to America.

There's no confirmed premiere date for season 4, but Daryl Dixon has maintained a consistent yearly schedule, which is becoming increasingly rare in the modern TV landscape, with a new season airing annually since 2023. With 2026 growing closer to its end without any announcement about what's to come for the series, it seems possible that Daryl Dixon could air in early 2027, instead. The series will finally bring the story of Daryl and Carol's European adventures to an end, and may set up another piece of The Walking Dead universe as it close.

More Tales From TWDU

Tales Of The Walking Dead, But Smaller

Aired in mid-2022, Tales of the Walking Dead was a six-part anthology telling one-off stories set within The Walking Dead's universe, including an episode about Alpha before she became the Whisperers' skin-clad leader. AMC has seemingly not finished mining that concept yet, as one of its upcoming Walking Dead projects is being developed under the title More Tales from TWDU. Of course, TWDU stands for "The Walking Dead Universe," suggesting this will be another anthology showcase for one-off characters and familiar faces alike. Franchise chief Scott M. Gimple has already expressed his desire for more classic characters if Tales of the Walking Dead returns.

One big difference is that More Tales from TWDU will be a short-form series made for AMC's Content Room, which specializes in digital originals. It appears that these short tales will be a way to connect different parts of the overall Walking Dead universe in a way that would seem disruptive if they interrupted the narrative of a regular season. It is currently unclear when More Tales from TWDU will arrive. The series was announced back in 2023 and there haven't been any more updates since then, so it may have been quietly canceled or put on the backburner.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Isn't Getting A Season 2

In 2018, The Walking Dead promised that Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes would return via a series of movies, but after that initial announcement was followed by a long period of radio silence, the project was officially remodeled into another Walking Dead TV spinoff titled The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The Rick and Michonne series arrived in February 2024, and is the only TWD spinoff so far that won't be getting a second season (unless AMC's plans radically change).

Andrew Lincoln was joined by Danai Gurira's Michonne, who departed The Walking Dead in season 10 after finding evidence of Rick's survival that prompted her to embark on a mission to find him. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live finally gave audiences closure for several unresolved plot arcs of The Walking Dead. Not only did Rick and Michonne finally find each other by The Ones Who Live ending, but the spinoff finally made all the teases regarding the CRM in the main show actually matter.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live was originally conceived as a Rick Grimes movie, and these roots in its development history are apparent in the show itself. The story is wrapped up neatly by the conclusion, and it works as a miniseries. The narrative doesn't require a follow-up, and so far there are no plans for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live season 2. Of course, this could change in the future if AMC decides to expand Rick and Michonne's story further.

Exactly how they'd do this is unclear, since season 1 didn't leave any obvious ways to continue the story, and ended with a real sense of closure rather than a cliffhanger setting up a future storyline. However, it also didn't contain any significant barriers to extend The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live into a second season either, and if The Walking Dead taught viewers anything across its 11 seasons, it's that the peace and calm Rick and Michonne have found is far from guaranteed to last.

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What Is Next For The Walking Dead Franchise

While there are no other officially announced Walking Dead spinoffs in the works, this franchise is continuing to expand. Scott M. Gimple has been named the chief content officer of The Walking Dead Universe. He's essentially the Kevin Feige-esque architect, guiding the entire franchise and making sure the timeline remains more or less intact. Nothing else has been confirmed to be in development beyond additional seasons of Dead City and Daryl Dixon, and More Tales from the Walking Dead Universe, but Gimple has big ambitions for the franchise.

Gimple has said that he has plans for crossovers that would bring the characters from the various disconnected spinoffs into each other's stories. Gimple doesn't have an end in sight; he sees The Walking Dead saga going on until 2040, and maybe even longer than that. Suffice to say, The Walking Dead franchise isn't going away any time soon. Much like a walker, it refuses to die.

The Walking Dead is a massive multimedia franchise that began with a comic book series created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The franchise gained widespread popularity with the launch of the television series The Walking Dead in 2010 on AMC, which chronicles the lives of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, referred to as "walkers." The success of the original show has led to numerous spin-offs, web series, video games, novels, and other media. The franchise explores themes of survival, human nature, and the breakdown of society in the face of an existential threat, making it one of the most successful and influential horror series of the 21st century.