The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 will bring together the defining elements of every modern spinoff in the franchise, creating a whole new take on the zombie apocalypse. After The Walking Dead ended with season 11, a trio of shows took its place: Daryl Dixon, Dead City, and The Ones Who Live. While Dead City season 2 is still to come and The Ones Who Live‘s future remains unclear, Daryl’s spinoff is steaming ahead, with Daryl Dixon season 3 currently in production.

Unusually, Daryl’s show is destined for a reshuffle of its own. Daryl Dixon season 2 ended with Norman Reedus’ Daryl and Melissa McBride’s Carol leaving France, while the remainder of the main cast were either dead or taking a different path. Since every plot point from the previous seasons has been resolved, Daryl Dixon‘s next run isn’t so much a continuation of what came before, but the beginning of a whole new story. The winds of change are blowing for Daryl and Carol, but what comes next bears a strong resemblance to stories told elsewhere in The Walking Dead‘s timeline.

Daryl Dixon Season 3 Will Repeat The Buddy Road Trip Of Dead City

Daryl & Carol Are The New Maggie & Negan (With Less Beef)

Until now, Daryl Dixon has essentially been a solo project. Season 1 focused entirely on Daryl himself, then Daryl and Carol shared custody of season 2. Only late in Daryl Dixon‘s second season did the two Walking Dead veterans unite and function as a pair. Daryl Dixon season 3 will take the opposite approach, transforming into more of a buddy road trip story starring Reedus and McBride on equal footing.

The Walking Dead already used this format to great effect with Maggie and Negan in Dead City. The begrudging allies made their way through the bowels of New York on a mission to rescue Hershel, and the sparkling chemistry between Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is what truly brought that particular spinoff to life.

While The Ones Who Live also focused on a duo (Rick and Michonne), the romantic nature of that relationship separated it from Daryl & Carol and Negan & Maggie.

Compared to the past two seasons, Daryl Dixon season 3 will feel a lot closer to Dead City in terms of exploring a compelling onscreen friendship – albeit one with far less bad blood in the rearview mirror. Daryl Dixon season 3’s unfamiliar setting of Spain brings its premise even closer to Dead City‘s, with both shows plucking two popular characters out of The Walking Dead, dropping them into alien territory, then pulling drama from how the duo works together to overcome the challenges posed by a new environment.

Daryl Dixon Season 3 Will Be About Getting Home, Just Like The Ones Who Live

Rick & Michonne Did It, But Can Daryl & Carol?

Daryl talked ad nauseam about returning to the Commonwealth throughout the first two seasons of his spinoff series, but that was never his primary concern. In Daryl Dixon season 1, the titular protagonist embarked on a quest protecting a child from an evil witch. In season 2, the main goal was defeating said witch alongside all of her minions. Going home to the United States was merely Daryl’s plan for sometime in the future when his work in France was complete. In Daryl Dixon season 3, however, finding a way home will seemingly become the central focus.

Now that Daryl’s French business is settled, his attention is entirely on navigating a path home.

Daryl and Carol waved goodbye to Laurent in season 2’s finale, and only stayed behind because Ash’s plane wasn’t big enough to accommodate four passengers and a crossbow. Daryl’s driving motivation now is somehow finding a route across the Atlantic and reuniting with Laurent back at the Commonwealth. With this in mind, Daryl Dixon‘s next season begins looking a lot like The Ones Who Live. The entire thrust of Rick and Michonne’s spinoff story was finding a way to escape the Civic Republic Military and rejoin loved ones waiting back at the Commonwealth.

Now that Daryl’s French business is settled, his attention is entirely on navigating a path home, which means Daryl Dixon season 3 will strike a very similar chord. In this instance, however, the heroes must overcome geographical distance and the Atlantic Ocean rather than a shady organization hellbent on keeping its soldiers captive.

Daryl Dixon Season 3 Will Continue With Its Own European Setting

To Avoid Pain In Spain, Get The Zombie In The Brain

Daryl Dixon season 3 may be drawing key elements from Dead City and The Ones Who Live, but it will also retain the single most unique quality from its own playbook. Set in New York and Philadelphia, respectively, Dead City and The Ones Who Live struggled to completely shake off The Walking Dead‘s standard tone and visuals. Dead City‘s stylized urban landscape came close, but, by virtue of being set Stateside, could never stray far from the franchise norm.

Moving the action to France allowed Daryl Dixon to truly set itself apart from other spinoffs in The Walking Dead‘s canon, immediately establishing an aesthetic that felt utterly unlike anything AMC’s zombie franchise had done previously. Daryl Dixon season 3 will pull the same trick all over again, as the relocation from France to Spain promises new sights, a new culture, and a new approach that pulls away from the grimy suburbia and endless Georgia forests of The Walking Dead, but also departs from Daryl Dixon‘s French-flavored joie de vivre.

Based on how Daryl Dixon season 2 ends, season 3 will be partly set in England.

By bringing together a new European setting, a buddy road trip premise, and a story about getting back home, Daryl Dixon season 3 feels like all of The Walking Dead‘s spinoffs post-season 11 rolled into one. While walking similar roads inevitably brings the risk of repetition, picking out the best qualities of all three spinoffs could also make The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 the most well-rounded yet.