I’m gonna be completely honest: I dropped out on The Walking Dead franchise years back.
I recall catching up on Season 7 or 8 on Netflix, having it on as a second screen show while I was working on other stuff. And at some point, I simply felt like I was watching a retread of the same things over and over again.
Cut to 2026, and I’m aware that The Walking Dead has hung around in various spin-off forms over the years. I caught an episode or two of Fear the Walking Dead before bailing (which itself ran for eight seasons!), World Beyond, Tales of the Walking Dead, and now the currently airing Dead City edition of the show, which is poised to premiere Season 3 on July 26th, 2026 on AMC and AMC+.
Here’s the official trailer:
My knowledge of the show is such that I’m well familiar with the character of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who now appears to be the central figure in this Dead City version of the show.
Intriguing enough, but the wild part to me is that my recollection of the character is that he was a psychotic killer – even by zombie apocalypse times standards – who wound up killing off (yet another) several well-liked characters on The Walking Dead.
I vaguely had a sense that Negan went on to at least come into some kind of understanding or alliance with the point of view characters on TWD, so presumably his reputation – at least by way of how the show’s producers have positioned him – has softened up just enough so that they might expect a horror genre-loving audience to follow his continuing adventures.
And these Dead City adventures are focused on post-apocalypse New York City, which is a nice wrinkle in the show’s machinations as well. Whether or not those combination of factors – along with a cast that also includes Lauren Cohan’s Maggie, who appeared in a whopping 145 episodes of The Walking Dead OG edition, in addition to two of my all-time favorite characters: Zeljko Ivanek and Jimmi Simpson.
Simpson has been on my “I’ll watch him anything list” dating back to his stellar appearance as a jaded rock star on Party Down, and then of course he’s well known as playing super weirdo Liam McPoyle on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Okay, one more particular favorite: his involvement in the two stellar “USS Callister”episodes of Black Mirror
A few final thoughts on Jeffrey Dean Morgan while running through The Walking Dead: Dead City’s cast list. I thought he was just great as main character Ike Evans in the fabulous 1950s noir drama show, Magic City. It’s a show high on my list of deserving far more than the two seasons that were produced overall.
Whenever Jeffrey Dean Morgan comes up, a very specific and strange memory pops into my head. When I first moved to Seattle, I bounced around a few hair salons in my neighborhood in my attempt to find someone who could properly tame my beastly thick hair. I appeared to have struck gold with a woman who had a legit punk rock look: tons of tattoos, kind of goth-y clothes, and a vibe that suggested she had seen some things in her day.
Over a period of months, she told me many different stories, always with some level of overlap between other parts of her life that she had revealed. For all I know, it’s all completely accurate and true, but I’ll just say that I wouldn’t put my money on it. Some stories involved “handling money” for musicians on tour such as the Wu-Tang Clan and Johnny Cash, and others related to dating celebrities.
Henry Rollins came up often. She claimed to be in a decade-plus relationship with him, and indeed added that he’d hang out in her salon when he’s in town. And then at some point, she told me about dating Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
“Negan from The Walking Dead?” I said.
“That’s the one,” she replied.
During my final visit, she made a casually antisemitic remark, and I decided on the spot that that was that. But I will find myself pondering from time to time how much of her set of stories is true versus what’s wildly exaggerated or made up – or stuff in her mind that she genuinely believes.
Anyway, I’ll be honest on a final note here and state that I don’t see quite enough in The Walking Dead: Dead City to get me to tune in, but I will cheer on the surviving humans versus the (somehow still “living” or “animated” or whatever?) zombie hordes from the sidelines.