AMC has announced that the main The Walking Dead series will end after an extended Season 11. However, after the show ends, AMC will still explore the universe with a slew of other series, including Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond and two new spinoffs. One of these is an interesting sounding anthology series titled Tales of the Walking Dead. The second is a series focused on Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus).
According to the press release, the new series will focus on Carol and Daryl, with Angela Kang continuing in her role as showrunner after wrapping up the main The Walking Dead series. The addition of Kang makes this spinoff promising, as she turned the main series around after a few years of wheel grinding and flagging ratings. Still, this franchise honestly doesn't need a show following Carol and Daryl around.
There are a lot of good things that The Walking Dead did over its run, and Daryl and Carol are two of those positives. Daryl was not in the comic books at all, and Carol in the TV series was a vast improvement over her comic book character, where she was a terrible example of women in fiction. While the TV show took some time, she eventually became a female Daryl Dixon and the closest thing the show had to Andrea in the comics.
However, the Daryl and Carol spinoff show will face a big problem: We've seen it before. The best parts of Fear the Walking Dead come from the new characters, and not those AMC moved over to help raise ratings. As an anthology series focusing on both new and existing characters, Tales of the Walking Dead will be able to keep things fresh. The Walking Dead: World Beyond sounds excellent because it plans to focus on kids born into the zombie apocalypse, never knowing life before the world shut down. A show about Carol and Daryl sounds like the same thing fans have watched for ten seasons.
Daryl has come a long way in ten seasons. He started as the brother of the racist Merle Dixon. When Merle disappeared, Daryl began to mature as a human being thanks to his association with Rick Grimes. He showed his softer side with Beth Greene and went through the wringer with Negan. Finally, he came out on the other side as a leader, although the show would throw out the loner gimmick when needed. There is nowhere left to go for Daryl as a character.
Carol is much the same. She started as an abused wife who had a hard time overcoming her insecurities. However, Carol eventually became a ruthless killing machine. She had some fantastic moments, including the "look at the flowers" moment, and she even went dark when she showed up in Alexandria. Much like Daryl, there is nothing left for her to do as a character.
What the Carol and Daryl spinoff plans to do is unknown, but out of all The Walking Dead series coming, the Rick Grimes' movies included, a series focused on them seems the least interesting and a step backward for a franchise that needs to move forward.