When a long-time co-star exits a project, it’s something that weighs on an actor, and during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Norman Reedus opened up about the recent exit of Melissa McBride from his upcoming Walking Dead spinoff. As expected, the actor fully understands and supports his close friend.
“She wanted to take some time off, and she’s doing that. She deserves it,” says Reedus. “I imagine those characters are going to meet back up at some point, and they might even meet up with some other characters down the road. In the meantime, [AMC] was like, ‘Hey, you wanna go on a mission?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s go on a mission.’”
While it was initially reported that McBride was exiting due to creative differences, it was later noted that the production moving to Europe caused a logical issue. The official statement on McBride’s exit read: “…in the previously announced spinoff focused on the Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier characters, which will be set and filmed in Europe this summer and premiere next year. Relocating to Europe became logistically untenable for Melissa at this time.” As Reedus hinted, the door for Carol to meet up with long-time friend Daryl can still happen down the line.
David Zabel will serve as the showrunner on the still-untitled series. Zabel comes in as The Walking Dead boss Angela Kang also exited. The Daryl-focused series will premiere sometime in 2023.
For fans of The Walking Dead, this will not be the only upcoming project as the anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead debuts later this year. AMC is also planning a series titled Isle of the Dead, a Negan & Maggie spinoff starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan.
