Melissa McBride is coming back to ‘The Walking Dead’ franchise in ‘Daryl Dixon’
By Alli Rosenbloom and Brian Lowry, CNN
(CNN) — The long-running AMC drama “The Walking Dead” may have aired its final episode last year, but the show keeps finding new life among the undead. In this case, the very-much-alive Carol Peletier.
Melissa McBride is set to reprise her fan-favorite role in “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” the Norman Reedus-led spin-off that debuted in September, AMC announced Thursday.
McBride is set to appear in the Season 1 finale on Sunday, and will be a series regular in Season 2, the network said.
McBride played Carol in “The Walking Dead” for 11 seasons.
“Dixon” was supposed to team up the popular characters Daryl and Carol before McBride backed out of the project due to the logistics of shooting in Europe and wanting to take a break.
“I’ve known there was much more to be told of Carol’s story as I felt her so unsettled when we last saw her, as she watched her best friend, Daryl, ride away,” McBride said in a statement Thursday. “I’m so excited to continue Carol’s journey here.”
The spinoff follows Daryl, who finds himself in France and sets out to discover how and why he got there. Along the way, he is faced with complications as he attempts to make the journey home.
“Dead City,” starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan and “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” featuring original stars Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, are the other announced spinoffs that were plucked from “The Walking Dead.”
The Lincoln-Gurira project was originally intended to be turned into a series of movies, before AMC changed course and opted to go the series route. The network announced Thursday that the series would make its debut in February. Lincoln left “The Walking Dead” in 2018, and Gurira in 2020.
Season 2 of “Dixon” is currently in production and a premiere date has yet to be announced. The Season 1 finale airs Sunday on AMC and AMC+ at 9 p.m. ET.
The-CNN-Wire
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