Warning: spoilers ahead for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2.

After The Walking Dead : Daryl Dixon‘s season 2 finale, the franchise’s main group of survivors has gained two valuable additions that could each play a big role in ending the zombie outbreak. As an inevitable result of The Walking Dead branching into a multitude of different spinoffs, its characters have spread widely across the map.

Regardless, Rick Grimes’ core hub of survivors remains anchored to the network of communities that gradually formed throughout The Walking Dead‘s eleven seasons. The Commonwealth has become the de facto capital due to its sheer size, but Alexandria, Oceanside, a rebuilt Hilltop, and potentially even the remains of the Civic Republic are all included in the thriving alliance.

Precious little has been seen of these communities since The Walking Dead‘s ending, but hope for a reunion remains. Even if The Walking Dead season 12 never happens, a crossover has been teased, and Gabriel’s cameo in The Ones Who Live demonstrates how individual characters can move between shows. When the franchise eventually does return focus to its main group, however, there will be two new additions who could potentially make significant contributions toward solving The Walking Dead‘s zombie outbreak for good.

Laurent Was One Of France’s Great Hopes – Now He Can Help The Walking Dead’s Commonwealth

Is Laurent The Next Rick Grimes?

In Laurent, The Walking Dead‘s main group has gained a promising new leader for the future. Daryl Dixon season 2 ends with Laurent flying off to live in the Commonwealth, while Daryl and Carol take the long way home after being unable to squeeze onto the same plane. Laurent has been hailed as a child prodigy throughout the Daryl Dixon spinoff, and while his idol status was partly due to the Union’s misguided belief that being born to a zombified mother made him immune to the virus, the youngster also possesses many qualities worthy of a future community leader.

While Laurent is highly unlikely to enjoy natural immunity to the zombie virus, Daryl Dixon has never conclusively ruled out the idea.

Despite not being old enough to grow a beard, Laurent has developed a unique philosophy about life, and has also displayed a powerful way of connecting with total strangers on a deep emotional level. From grieving survivors to his own enemies, Laurent is a talented influencer of hearts and minds. In just two seasons of Daryl Dixon, the child has successfully convinced Codron to switch sides, coaxed Anna to help him escape, and turned the famously cold Daryl Dixon into a father figure. Even Carol couldn’t help but be affected by Laurent’s empathetic nature.

So influential is Laurent, Daryl Dixon‘s main villains, Genet and her Pouvoir du Vivant group, have pumped huge amounts of time and resources into his capture. Laurent is the closest thing to a natural-born leader The Walking Dead has (without the surname “Grimes”), and the kid from France would perfectly complement the more battle-tested Judith as co-leader of the Commonwealth 15 or 20 years into The Walking Dead‘s timeline. Between them, Judith and Laurent have a realistic chance of bringing civilization back to The Walking Dead‘s world.

 It should also be noted that while Laurent is highly unlikely to enjoy natural immunity to the zombie virus, Daryl Dixon has never conclusively ruled out the idea. No one can say for sure what it means in scientific terms for a child to be born to an undead mother, and if Laurent truly is resistant, his blood could lead the charge to wipe out zombies forever. If he isn’t, the Commonwealth is still infinitely better for his presence.

Ash’s Skills Will Be A Fantastic Complement To The Walking Dead’s Eugene

Ash & Eugene Can Change The Walking Dead’s World For The Better

Also joining the Commonwealth after Daryl Dixon season 2’s ending will be Ash, the pilot of the plane ferrying Laurent from France to the United States. Ash is, by any measure, not cut out to be any sort of leader, and he certainly isn’t immune to the zombie virus. Worse than that, Ash is really quite poor at post-apocalyptic survival in general, and would have died several times over in France without assistance from Daryl and Carol.

Ash almost died after leaving his temporary shelter and getting chased into a car by zombies. In the finale, he walks into an open space without checking the shadows and is quickly pulled back by Daryl as a zombie emerges.

What Ash does bring to the table – and the reason he survived this long into the outbreak – are deeply impressive engineering and mechanical skills. Ash built a fully-functional, self-sustaining compound complete with fuel, food, security, and electricity, and that creation protected him for most of the zombie apocalypse. If that was not enough, Ash also learned to fly and maintain aircraft during his downtime. What Ash lacks in field skills, therefore, he more than makes up for in sheer ingenuity and invention, which immediately draws comparison to The Walking Dead‘s Eugene.

While not quite as awkward in social situations, Ash would make a fantastic companion for Eugene in the Commonwealth. Pooling their knowledge would allow The Walking Dead‘s allied communities to make technological and structural advancements that would never have been possible otherwise, bringing the network of allies one step closer to restoring the world.

Can Laurent & Ash Return To The Walking Dead?

If Ash & Laurent Return To The Franchise, How Could It Happen?

While season 2 ends with Daryl and Carol walking to England, Daryl Dixon season 3 will be primarily set in Spain, effectively ruling out any sort of meaningful appearances from Laurent or Ash. After everyone worked so hard to get him to the Commonwealth, Laurent is hardly likely to insult their sacrifices by flying back to Europe. Ash would perhaps attempt to retrace his steps and pick up the two friends he left behind, but would have no way of knowing that Daryl and Carol had already moved on from France to Spain.

As a result, the prospect of either character featuring in Daryl Dixon season 3 seems very unlikely. Nevertheless, other options are on the table. A potential The Walking Dead crossover has been discussed by franchise overlord Scott M. Gimple, and plenty of unanswered plot threads – Morgan looking for Rick, Designation 2, the fungi weapon from World Beyond – are ripe for continuation in such a project. Even Daryl’s story cannot end until he finally reunites with Rick Grimes. In any sort of project that brings all factions of The Walking Dead‘s cast together, Laurent and Ash would be expected to join.

If a crossover never comes to pass, one would imagine that, at the very least, Daryl Dixon‘s series finale will end on Daryl returning to the Commonwealth and being greeted by a beaming Laurent, setting up potential adventures to come. After compelling performances in Daryl’s spinoff, there simply must be some kind of future in the Walking Dead franchise for Louis Puech Scigliuzzi and Manish Dayal, and Gimple has confirmed as much, stating, “There are different things I’ve been working on, and I have absolutely played with how Laurent might fit within those things in America.“

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is clearly not the end of the road for Laurent and Ash, then, and whenever they resurface, the Commonwealth will almost certainly be a better place for having them around. Daryl Dixon may have left a big hole when he departed the Commonwealth and was subsequently abducted by Pouvoir du Vivant, but the trip has ultimately put The Walking Dead‘s survivors in a better position than they were when Daryl was last there.