5 Things to know before watching The Walking Dead: Dead City

The first of many Walking Dead spinoffs, The Walking Dead: Dead City is arriving to AMC on June 18. But before you sit back and enjoy what this spinoff has to offer, there are several things you should know first.

Let’s begin!

1. The walker variant

If you’ve seen the trailer for Dead City, you’ll have noticed not only a walker nightmare, which seems to consist of four or more walkers merged together, but a faster moving, more agile walker on a city rooftop. This walker is definitely different than the ones we’re used to seeing on The Walking Dead.

Whether it was a misstep or poorly planned, The Walking Dead decided to wait until the last minute to reveal the new walker variants that include walkers who can climb walls and pick up objects. Yes, truthfully, we saw a few of these variants way back in season 1, but we hadn’t seen them since.

We already discussed why these variants should have been revealed during The Whisperer arc but it’s important to understand that most likely, these variants will show up again in Dead City and why.

2. Negan and Maggie’s history

Oh boy, how do we wrap this up in a few sentences? Long story short, Negan had killed both Abraham and Glenn at the infamous lineup, which also managed to brilliantly introduce the villain with horrific display. Glenn was Maggie’s husband, the often-moral compass of the show and a core member of Rick’s group since season 1.

Maggie was also pregnant with their child, Hershel Jr. at the time of Glenn’s death but Negan wasn’t aware of that at the time. Needless to say, watching your husband get brutally murdered by a man you had tried to kill first and failed to do so, is a living nightmare.

Since then, Maggie had tried to kill Negan once for revenge but found him in less than a stellar mindsight. Believing his mental state to be revenge enough for her, Maggie left Alexandria for a while, but returned several seasons later to find the man practically free from his cell.

The two then perform a never-ending tango of hate and forgiveness, even though Negan had proven himself to be redeemed more time than anyone can count.

3. The Walking Dead series finale

So, then what is the status of Negan and Maggie’s complicated association with each other? By the time The Walking Dead concludes it is clear that they had indeed buried the hatchet, with Negan leaving the group quietly to join his pregnant wife and Maggie regrouping with her loved ones to lead The Hilltop.

Maggie will probably never forget what Negan did, but she seems to have forgiven him and understands the value his life has. Negan may never forgive himself for what he did to Maggie, but he can at least move on with his life knowing he is a changed man.

Long story short, the two do not interact after their final conversation again and it is likely they haven’t thought about each other since.

4. The Sanctuary

We see in the Dead City trailer, Negan and Maggie at each other’s throats…again. Well truthfully it is Maggie who can never seem to let the anger and spite she has for the man go.

Even after, what we can assume will be another time jump. But it seems a man called The Croat, is the one who has kidnapped Hershel Jr. and has some mysterious past with Negan.

For those unaware, Negan was the leader of his community, The Sanctuary. His community was run on a point system, where depending on your job, depended on how many points you could earn.

Points were then spent on your needs. Negan ran a tight ship to say the least, where ruler breakers were punished, which included, at least for the men, the iron.

This is how Dwight, who has been on both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead wound up with his face partially scarred. Just who The Croat is in relation to Negan?

We don’t know but we also theorized about that. All the same, it pays to know what kind of leader Negan was and how The Sanctuary ran in comparison to places like Alexandria, The Hilltop and The Kingdom.

5. Old habits

We’ve seen so many characters on The Walking Dead come and go, with most going through some sort of character development for better or worse. But even after these characters change, they often resort back to their old habits.

For Maggie it seems to be the case of her hatred for Negan. For Negan is seems to be his villainous ways.

It pays to remember that the two of them, as well as the many new faces we’ll be introduced to, fall into this limbo. An event changes them and their ways, then something else occurs to bring them back or change them again, but this time for the better.

Only to have another event take place that will call for their previous selves to take center stage once more. It’s the apocalypse, everyone needs to survive, not just the undead but the living too.

So, while we’ve seen Maggie and Negan makes amends in The Walking Dead series finale, we also need to remember what their old habits are and how they will be making a return in Dead City.

Will you be watching The Walking Dead: Dead City? Let us know in the comments below!