The Walking Dead has been a staple for many years at New York Comic Con and the fandom still grows strong since the mothership series ended. At this year’s Walking Dead panel, fans were treated to an early screening of the season finale of the spin-off series Daryl Dixon. After the episode, audiences were amazed to see actor Norman Reedus taking part in the panel as he discussed his journey from the beginning of The Walking Dead to the new spin-off series. It was one to remember by fans of his character as they learned what’s in store for Daryl moving forward in the new series.
The panelists who joined Reedus were executive producer Scott Gimple, Greg Nicotero, and showrunner David Zabel. Norman kicked off the panel by discussing just how different it was for him to portray his character after leaving The Walking Dead and jumping into the spin-off series. He dug deep into adapting to a contrasting environment as it took place in France. Norman says the language barrier was quite a challenge but he was able to use his body language throughout the shoot as his character. Despite the series being quite different from the main show, Norman said he was able to make a connection to his character in a rather interesting way while continuing to grow with him. As an EP, Norman enjoyed getting to help work on the series outside of being an actor, wanting to make it a challenge for him and doing something different with his character and the franchise as a whole.
With the show being shot in France, the team got to talk a bit about what it was like being able to film in a foreign country, which is a first for The Walking Dead universe. Nicotero, known for his make-up work in the series for the undead, got to discuss being able to make the zombies fresh for the series for them to stick out from the main show. Nicotero went into being able to add more layers into how the zombies were portrayed on screen, feeling just how similar it was to work with a smaller cast in the main series. Nicotero went into his plans for the forthcoming second season, including getting to direct the premiere.
Showrunner Zabel jumped into the conversation discussing getting to work lead on the show for the first time. He talked about how different he wanted to make the spin-off from the mothership series. Zabel went into how he wanted to humanize Daryl after Norman got to play him for a long time. Perhaps one of the best things Zabel said he loved shooting is the iconic Mont Saint Michel in the season finale and how beautiful the landscape was getting to film it. He hopes to see some growth with the other characters as season two approaches next year.
As fans have learned, Melissa McBride will be joining the cast during season two reprising her role as Carol. It will be a mystery as to how the stories will connect as Carol goes in search of Daryl after the season finale. Fans will have to wait till next year to see what happens, but it will be worth the wait as they got a taste of what’s to come in a teaser for the upcoming season of Daryl Dixon
