Maggie Rhee and Negan are back for another season of The Walking Dead: Dead City. Naturally, things haven’t changed between the two. Maggie still despises Negan for murdering her husband, Glenn, several years ago. Negan is still resorting to his usual sadistic ways to gain power while also advocating for his redemption. However much they hate each other, Maggie and Negan are bound to each other. Maybe not romantically, but Maggie and Negan always find their way back to each other.
The official teaser for Dead City Season 2 was released at San Diego Comic Con 2024, revealing a first look at returning and new characters, and the second season’s story. The main cast, of course, have found their way back to an apocalyptic New York City: Lauren Cohan as Maggie, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan, Gaius Charles as Perlie Armstrong and more. There are also several new Dead City cast members that the teaser gave glimpses of: Kim Coates, Dascha Polango, Jake Weary, Keir Gilchrist and Pooya Mohseni. There’s still much to be seen about what Season 2 has to offer, but the teaser shows just enough to get people excited about the continued story of two fan-favorite TWD characters.
The Old Negan Is Back in TWD: Dead City
Negan has been a flip-flopping character since Season 9 of The Walking Dead. One episode, he’s perfectly fine with the murder of children and being a malicious leader. In another episode, he has a soft spot for children and wants to leave his darkness behind. It’s perfectly reasonable that Negan has depth that makes him a complicated character to read. Any villain embarking on a path to redemption is bound to hit some hiccups that sets them back. In Season 1 of Dead City, Negan tries to find a balance between his old and new lives. He’s tough when he needs to be, and sensible when it’s safe. But the thing about Negan is that any shade of decency is immediately erased when he’s tasted an ounce of power.
The teaser proposes that Negan will be heading backwards this season to the person he was in Seasons 7 and 8 of The Walking Dead. Now that he’s made official introductions to the Dama, Negan is on board with helping her and the Croat take control of what’s left of Manhattan. He has an influential power that the Dama needs, and he seems content with giving it to her. After all, with great power, comes a great look. Negan dons the iconic leather jacket again with a new version of his barbed wire bat Lucille, and has taken up the old habit of whistling. Is it good to be back, though? Negan is seen throwing Lucille 2.0 in an angry fit towards the end of the teaser. Maybe succumbing to self-destructive habits isn’t what Negan truly wants in life, but he’ll probably have to make several mistakes before he realizes that.
Maggie and Perlie Team Up to Save Negan in Dead City
As Negan gets comfortable in his new position, Maggie is left feeling miserable. That’s basically the basis of their relationship. In the Dead City Season 1 finale, Maggie had a big argument with her son, Hershel Jr., over her “obsession” with Negan. It’s pretty unfair to tell Maggie to move on from resenting her husband’s murderer when she keeps being put in situations where she has to look at him. But according to Hershel, her Negan obsession has caused a rift in the mother-son relationship. Maggie wants to “finish this thing” with Negan so she can let him go for her son’s sake. She didn’t clarify in the Season 1 finale whether she meant killing him or saving him from the Dama. The trailer suggests the latter.
Maggie is teaming up with Perlie Armstrong this season to save Negan, which Perlie is more than confused by. Perlie himself had beef with Negan that he put behind him because it was too much of a headache to solve. But Perlie also knows that Maggie has a long history with Negan. If she wants to save him, she has to have a good reason. Whatever it is, Perlie is on her side, since he’s probably running from New Babylon. The two of them are going to face some nasty work by the Dama and the Croat, who have an army of humans and walkers on their side.
On the front of New Babylon, the teaser doesn’t give a look at the town but does show a new side of the Croat’s establishment. His people are still producing methane using the corpses of dead walkers and putting people in fighting pits as entertainment. Now that New Babylon knows of this strange way to make gasoline, they might have sent Perlie to learn the tricks of the trade.
Hershel Remains Obsessed Over the Dama and New Characters Are Introduced
Hershel being annoyed with Maggie’s obsession with Negan is interesting considering he has a fascination with the Dama of all people. The Season 1 finale wasn’t very specific on what the relationship between Hershel and his former captor was. There were hints of a Stockholm Syndrome scenario, but Hershel is also a teenager who doesn’t think his mother sees him. It’s possible the Dama gave him the attention his mother couldn’t. Their relationship is hard to quantify, but it’s not something to ignore. Hershel is again looking at this drawing of the Dama that he kept hidden from Maggie in the Season 1 finale. But what he doesn’t know is that she found the drawing, and has her suspicions about what happened between the two of them.
It’s also worth mentioning that she has no idea that the Dama cut off one of Hershel’s toes while he was held captive, so it’s puzzling that he’s chosen to keep these secrets. Since Hershel is seen running with Maggie in the Season 2 teaser, he might be using his mother’s guilt to either get closure with the Dama, or run back to her. It would certainly line up with star Logan Kim’s previous foreshadowing of a “dark” storyline for Hershel in Season 2. If Hershel ends up betraying his own mother, that could be Maggie’s final breaking point.
A few other interesting tid-bits in the teaser involve two new characters: Pooya Mohseni as Roksana and Sons of Anarchy’s Kim Coates as Bruegal. Coates’ character is described as the leader of one of the most dangerous gangs in post-apocalyptic NYC. The Dama’s plan to subdue other groups in the city suggest that she’ll butt heads with him, meaning Maggie might have a common enemy with Bruegal. Roksana is someone Dead City hasn’t revealed anything about, but she is holding a bloody organ in a ritualistic ceremony in the teaser, hinting at the rise of a new cult in the world of The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2 premieres in 2025 on AMC and AMC+.
