‘The Walking Dead’ Boss on How ‘Daryl Dixon’ Takes Franchise ‘Back to the Beginning’

He’s a stranger in a very strange land. In The Walking Dead’s latest spinoff series, a fan favorite, crossbow-wielding American Southerner Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus, also an executive producer), finds himself in Paris. But the City of Light is flickering and filled with the dead.

How he winds up overseas is still murky (he does spend a portion of his trip across the Atlantic floating on shipwrecked debris), but once he’s there, he certainly won’t have time to try on berets or munch on any baguettes. In the six-episode first season (the action drama has already been renewed for a second round), Daryl is tasked with protecting and delivering 11-year-old Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) from the boy’s convent home to a mysterious new locale.

As executive producer Greg Nicotero observes, “Dixon takes us back to the beginning of what the DNA of The Walking Dead started as, which is a man on a mission.”

But that mission will be fraught. He faces a scary new type of walker, called burners.

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“These zombies have mutated to a point where if they touch or bite you or their blood gets on you, it burns you significantly,” Nicotero says. “It changes all the rules.” And will have you screaming as you watch.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is the latest addition to TWD universe, and thanks to Reedus, is one of the most anticipated. The series premieres on AMC and AMC+ this September. It also stars Clémence Poésy, Adam Nagaitis, Anne Charrier, Eriq Ebouaney, Laika Blanc Francard, and Romain Levi. Scott M. Gimple.

David Zabel is the showrunner, with Reedus and Nicotero as executive producers alongside Angela Kang, Brian Bockrath, and Daniel Percival. The first 10 minutes of the series is already available to view on AMC+.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Premieres Sunday, September 10, 9/8c, AMC/AMC+