As The Walking Dead's final season continues on AMC, the network has announced that yet another spinoff show is in the works, and this one will focus on bitter enemies turned uneasy allies Negan Smith and Maggie Rhee.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan will reprise their respective roles for the show, which is titled Isle of The Dead. The story will follow the pair as they explore a post-apocalyptic New York City.
“This is a very big day for the expanding universe we are building around The Walking Dead,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “It not only adds another compelling series to this collection, it extends our storytelling around two unforgettable characters fans have grown to love, hate or hate and then love in Maggie and Negan, brilliantly inhabited by Lauren and Jeffrey. It also lets us explore a corner of this universe located on the island of Manhattan, with an iconic skyline that takes on a very different meaning when viewed through the lens of a zombie apocalypse.”
It's certainly an intriguing premise. As any TWD fan will be aware, Negan brutally murdered Maggie's husband Glenn back in season 6, and although they have since formed an alliance out of necessity, their relationship remains volatile... to say the least.
Eli Jorné is on board as showrunner, while the series will be overseen by TWD Universe content chief Scott M. Gimple.
“Eli has created a chaotic, beautiful, grimy madhouse of the dead for Negan, Maggie, and fans of the show eager to discover an unseen and insane world of the TWD Universe,” said Gimple. “Lauren and Jeffrey have always been fantastic collaborators and now, we bring that collaboration to the next level with a series that will take these characters to their limits with the world — and each other. All of us are thrilled to take you on an all new, all different TWD epic for the ages.”
Another untitled spinoff focusing on Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) is still in development (we now know of at least four characters who'll survive the series finale, anyway).