Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Various pieces of news regarding the future of the Walking Dead franchise were released at ComicCon.

Daryl Dixon will be returning for a third season, this time set in Spain. Production of season three will begin next month and be based in Madrid, with extensive location shooting planned in the Galicia, Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia regions.

Season three tracks Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) as they continue their journey towards home and the ones they love. As they struggle to find their way back, the path takes them farther astray, leading them through distant lands with ever-changing and unfamiliar conditions as they witness the various effects of the Walker apocalypse.

“We are so proud of these shows and incredibly grateful for the way this new chapter in The Walking Dead Universe has been embraced by the fans,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “Sending Daryl, and then Carol, to France was such an inspired and visually striking move for this franchise, a chance to do something truly different. We can’t wait to continue the travels of this iconic duo with a third season produced and set in Spain, another beautiful country with a passionate TWD fanbase that is already buzzing with anticipation.”

Reedus said: “I couldn’t be more thrilled to announce a third season and to be working side by side with the brilliant Melissa McBride. Season two is some of my favorite storytelling of this series. Watching Melissa shine along with our brilliant cast and crew has been one of my fondest memories playing this character. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it and we can’t wait to keep the story going.”

McBride said: “I’m really appreciating the new challenges for Daryl and Carol being so far from all they’ve ever known… what it means for them, what it brings for each of them, apart and together. There’s still so much ahead to unpack in France for the coming season two, and a breathtaking finale. And now Spain! I already know that David Zabel’s storytelling is making the most of all that is so beautiful and unique to Spain. We start shooting there in just a few weeks… such excitement looking forward!”

Said Scott M. Gimple, chief content officer for The Walking Dead Universe: “France made Daryl and Carol’s story into an epic poem with what we found there. What’s to come in Spain may even surpass it – and we’re so damn happy to bring the audience more of the Terrific Two alongside new compelling characters, in a yet unseen, beautiful, horrific corner of their broken world.”

Showrunner David Zabel said: “We are all very excited to continue the epic and intimate story of these two friends Daryl and Carol trying to get back home. Exploring new spectacular European settings, we look forward to dramatizing the ways in which the Walker apocalypse has done to Spain what it did to France.”

Dead City’s second season arrives next year.

The Walking Dead: Dead City follows Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they travel into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror. In season two, in the growing war for control of Manhattan, Maggie and Negan find themselves trapped on opposite sides. As their paths intertwine, they come to see that the way out for both is more complicated and harrowing than they ever imagined.

New cast for season 2 includes:

Keir Gilchrist (Atypical, It Follows), in the role of “Benjamin Pierce”

Dascha Polanco (Orange Is the New Black, Poker Face), in the role of “Major Lucia Narvaez”

Jake Weary (Oh, Canada, How to Blow Up a Pipeline), in the role of “Christos”

Pooya Mohseni (Law & Order: SVU, See You Then), in the role of “Roksana”