The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 – Release Date Prediction, Renewal & Everything We Know

Warning! Contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 1 finale!

AMC has big plans for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2, especially since Norman Reedus’s crossbow-slinging globetrotter will finally reunite with his dearest friend. Set after The Walking Dead finale, the TWD spinoff focuses on Norman Reedus as the titular Daryl Dixon. Alongside The Walking Dead: Dead City and the upcoming The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon continues the story of AMC’s iconic zombie apocalypse franchise (although the timeline is now completely detached from the original Robert Kirkman comics).

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 will more-than likely take place in Europe thanks to Daryl’s French found family — especially surrogate son figure and possible messiah Laurent. The first chapter of Daryl Dixon’s new story sees him travel to France, where the zombie virus originated. It became clear in the first episode that the story is much wider than Daryl, with the finale potentially impacting the entire TWD universe. With an ensemble range of endearing characters, a hefty amount of mystery, and some monstrous new TWD zombie variants, it’s easy to see why AMC was so quick to renew The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2.

Most Recent The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 News

There’s been several pieces of significant Daryl Dixon season 2 news, and there are already many reasons why the next season of the Norman Reedus The Walking Dead spinoff is just as anticipated as the first — if not more so. A crucial casting update after the season 1 finale, “Coming Home”, teased the return of Carol (Melissa McBride), Daryl’s closest companion throughout the original run of The Walking Dead. Via a statement released in conjunction NYCC in October 2023 Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride revealed their thoughts on Carol’s return for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and teased her season 2 comeback:

Melissa McBride: I’ve known there was much more to be told of Carol’s story as I felt her so unsettled when we last saw her, as she watched her best friend, Daryl, ride away. Apart or (hopefully!) together, their stories run deep, and I’m so excited to continue Carol’s journey here. This team of storytellers have done amazing work to land these two established characters in an entirely new world to them, and I’m loving the discoveries!

Norman Reedus: My good friend, the talented, beautiful Melissa McBride, will be a series regular for season 2. We couldn’t be more thrilled.

In addition to the promising The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 cast tease from Reedus and McBride, AMC made sure to iterate that Carol’s return is official (via comicbook.com). AMC confirmed that not only will Carol be in Daryl Dixon season 2, she’ll be central to the plot — so much so that the show title will be The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 Is Confirmed

AMC has renewed The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon for season 2. Confirmation of the season 2 renewal came in July 2023, when the network announced both Daryl Dixon and sister spinoff The Walking Dead: Dead City would both be getting second volumes (via AMC). The announcement came less than a week before the Dead City season finale, and several months before the first season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon had aired. Filming is set to begin in France on October 20, 2023, thanks to an interim agreement between AMC and SAG-AFTRA (who are presently still engaged with a dispute over fair working conditions with the AMPTP).

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 Release Date Prediction

There is no release date for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 yet. Production on the next season of the Norman Reedus-led The Walking Dead spinoff resumed in October 2023 after having paused due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes (via comicbook.com). It’s more than likely that The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon release date will arrive in September 2024, as AMC has kept up with annual releases for almost all of the shows in The Walking Dead franchise wherever possible.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 Cast

There’s one guarantee when it comes to the cast of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 — Norman Reedus will be back as Daryl Dixon. Reedus has played Daryl, an original character created for The Walking Dead on AMC, since the franchise began in 2011. While Reedus had appeared in movies like The Boondock Saints and Blade II prior to The Walking Dead, playing Daryl Dixon was his breakout role, and he made the character his own.

It’s fair to say that Reedus’s performance is a key reason The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was optioned in the first place. The chances of Daryl being recast for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 are close to impossible. However, Norman Reedus isn’t alone in the spinoff, and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 will likely include many members of the cast of the series’ debut chapter. Confirmed The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 cast members include:

• Clémence Poésy as Isabelle
• Louis Puech Scigliuzzi as Laurent
• Laïka Blanc-Francard as Sylvie
• Anne Charrier as Genet
• Romain Levi as Codron
• Adam Nagaitis as Quinn

The biggest Daryl Dixon season 2 cast change is the addition of Melissa McBride as Carol as a series regular. Carol’s appearance was teased in episode 5, “Deux Amores”, with McBride appearing in the flesh for a cameo in the finale, “Coming Home”. AMC have confirmed that Carol is in season 2 of Daryl Dixon, and she’ll be so central to the story that the official title for the next chapter in the Norman Reedus TWD spinoff is The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol.

When the spinoff was first announced in 2020 it was intended that the Daryl Dixon spinoff cast would include Melissa McBride as Carol. However, shooting in Europe during 2022 meant McBride was unable to commit to the first season in full. Carol is returning for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2, with McBride excited to continue the journey of her TWD character.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 Story

There have already been a few details revealed about the plot of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2. The ending of Daryl Dixon season 1 also left a few teases for the second season, even if it was also an incredibly ambiguous cliffhanger. The key question is whether Daryl accepted his hard-earned voyage across the Atlantic back to the U.S., or if he decides to remain in France with Isabelle and Laurent. Given that season 2 of Daryl Dixon has been filming in France, it’s likely he’ll be staying.

A specific story element carrying across into The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 is the mystery of Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi). Laurent is a child cared for by Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) and her convent of Nuns. The show has already set Laurent up as an incredibly complex character, and many in France view him as some kind of future messiah. Laurent’s mother turned into a zombie during childbirth, and as far as Isabelle’s religious order is concerned he’s the messiah and savior of humanity. Daryl became a surrogate father figure to Laurent over the course of the first season, and the final shot of Daryl facing the boy on the beach hints that their relationship will continue to play a part in the season 2 plot.

There’s also the question of the struggle between the Union of Hope and Genet’s Pouvoir des Vivants. Daryl has spent much of the show so far asserting that it’s not his conflict to get involved in. His closeness to Laurent and Isabelle may change this, however, and it seems inevitable that he’ll end up helping the Union in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2. This is especially true given the reveals about Daryl’s grandfather fighting the Nazis in France during WW2, and the parallels between the situation then and post-apocalyptic France with the Pouvoir des Vivants seeking totalitarian control.

The big question The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 plot needs to resolve is how Daryl and Carol reuinite. Melissa McBride made an appearance at the end of the first season, and it’s been confirmed that the next will be titled The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol. Whatever else happens when the spinoff returns it’s guaranteed that Carol will be involved somehow, though the specifics of how, such as whether she gets to France to join Daryl, have yet to be revealed.