The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon recently concluded its second season with Daryl and Carol headed to Spain with more to come. Before that happens, Maggie and Megan’s ill-advised Manhattan adventures will return for their second season. This brutally back-to-basics spin off last left off with Maggie trading Negan to the Croat in exchange for her son, Hershel Rhees. This wasn’t a happy reunion, and Hershel called out Maggie’s singular vision for what it was, an obsession with vengeance, which is whittling away her soul.

That bittersweet ending served the show well with the second season now poised to take Maggie back into an urban hellscape like no other. We will soon find out what showrunner Eli Horne and franchise chief Scott Gimple have in store for this series after Negan attempted to make things right, only to have that quest blow up in his face. Let’s talk about where this show’s chess pieces are poised to go in Dead City‘s second season.

Plot

It doesn’t take a leap to realize that Maggie will rethink her decision to leave the rehabilitated Negan to certain doom. As for what Negan is doing and how he will cope, Jeffrey Dean Morgan previously admitted, “I feel like we find him in a spot that he’s never been in before. He’s a lot more vulnerable and he’s in a sticky situation, sort of needing Maggie to come save his ass, really.”

However, a teaser trailer shows that Negan might have decided to be his own “Savior” by reverting to being Bad Negan. That trailer also shows Maggie reacting to what looks (and acts) like seventh-season TWD Negan, who infamously bashed her husband’s brains into a pulp. What will this do to her “rescue” mission in process? That probably depends on whether Negan is simply going through the motions with a new Lucille by wrapping another baseball bat in barbwire (after the old Lucille splintered). And perhaps not even Negan knows how far he go will in order to survive.

Morgan has been having a ball with that ambiguity regarding Lucille. Earlier this year, he told SDCC’s Hall H (via Variety), “There’s something about that sweet girl that I love… It makes me turn into Negan [who has] has a love-hate relationship with her.”

This twisted chess game will be further complicated by new characters, but first, here’s the second season synopsis:

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.

Newly revealed strategists within Manhattan’s war include Dascha Polanco (Russian Doll, Orange Is The New Black) as Major Lucia Narvaez.

And because this show cannot have enough villain types, Kim Coates (Sons Of Anarchy) will be on hand as “fierce” gang leader Bruegel, who Deadline reports “is more manipulative and intelligent than we might have assumed.”

Also at NYCC, Scott Gimple said that this series isn’t saying “never” to any familiar faces surfacing in New York City, probably in future seasons if it happens. “I’m not telling you not to expect it,” he told the audience (via Variety). “But it’s a layered universe and so much of the history is important to the present. So it’s gonna be super satisfying when I say this – you never know. It’s an option and a possibility.”

Cast

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan continue as Negan and Maggie with more of the Duma (Lisa Emery) and the Croat (Željko Ivanek) to keep things menacing. Will Logan Kim also be back as the ungrateful Hershel Rhees? Presumably, and confirmed new cast members not only include Dascha Polanco and Kim Coates but also Keir Gilchrist and Pooya Mohseni.

Release Date

The gritty walkers of the city will return in Spring 2025.

Trailer

Negan is off to the showman races in this teaser trailer from NYCC.