Norman Reedus’s beloved action man is back in a new spin-off. It better do him justice
Norman Reedus is back as Daryl Dixon in a new Walking Dead spin-off (Photo: Emmanuel Guimier/AMC/Sky)
Even the most dedicated fans of zombie apocalypse franchise The Walking Dead will have had moments when they almost gave up. Whether it was entire seasons in which nothing at all seemed to happen or the silly shock-value violence (remember Negan and that baseball bat?), The Walking Dead has staggered again and again towards creative bankruptcy. But no matter how bad it got, one character kept us hooked – monosyllabic, crossbow-toting anti-hero Daryl Dixon.
After surviving all 11 seasons of the original, Daryl now returns to television with his own spin-off, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. It finds Norman Reedus’s hard-boiled outsider in France, where he teams up with a zombie-slaying nun played by Clémence Poésy. A lot rides on Daryl Dixon: ruin the beloved character and it risks turning many viewers off The Walking Dead expanded universe for good.
How could they ruin Daryl? By failing to be true to the character. Daryl is a complicated guy. On the surface, he’s a man without emotions – a killing machine mowing down zombies the way some of us might mill through a tub of Haribo at the end of a long day. Yet, under that exterior he’s a soulful figure – his ferocious grin offset by his deep, melancholic gaze.
The first worry is that Daryl might be cheapened by reducing him to a workday action hero – a two-dimensional good guy firing off one-liners and saving the day. There are enough conventional upholders of truth and justice on TV and The Walking Dead fans like me will hope Daryl Dixon does not smooth out his rough corners – or lumber him with silly storylines that make him look ridiculous or force him to betray his core values. Which are never, ever express your feelings out loud, and always kill zombies first, ask questions later.
Reedus elevates Daryl beyond action hero shallowness (Photo: AMC)
He isn’t the first Walking Dead A-lister to get his own show. Andrew Lincoln’s Sheriff Rick and Danai Gurira’s Michonne returned in May of this year for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. And the implacable Maggie Greene and reformed bully-boy Negan teamed up for The Walking Dead: Dead City in 2023.
But the stakes are higher for Daryl. He’s widely regarded as the most popular member of the Walking Dead ensemble, thanks to Reedus’s wry and gritty performance. I could quite happily watch Daryl sitting around doing nothing (just as well, too, as that is how he and his fellow survivors spent most of seasons six to eight of the original).
On one level, Daryl is a children’s action hero brought to life. He has his props – his crossbow, motorbike, and signature leather jacket. And, unlike many of his fellow apocalypse survivors, he isn’t weighed down with existential angst over the downfall of civilisation: he just wants to kill zombies and protect the people that matter to him.
The spin-off takes Daryl to France – but there are still zombies to fight (Photo: AMC)But he is elevated beyond action man shallowness by Reedus, a former model who imbues Daryl with mystery and charisma. He also brings a rock’n’roll bad-boy quality, which, it is tempting to conclude, is a reflection of the real Reedus. He wore his roguish charm with gusto when I interviewed him several years ago. Chugging a beer, he looked like an off-duty rock star as he spoke of his pride in The Walking Dead, which, in its early years, vied with Game of Thrones for the title of world’s biggest TV show. It remains hugely popular to this day – hence all the spin-offs.
He saw Daryl as an everyman who had lashed out when pushed to the limits – as tends to happen when zombies have destroyed civilisation. “He was the type of kid who was always pushed up against the wall. People fight for different reason. You fight for revenge, you fight to protect somebody. He was the the guy who had his back against the wall,” he said.
“He was always fighting – he wanted to fight all the time. When push comes to shove he’s the guy who comes out swinging. He protects the people he loves – it’s what he needs to do. He doesn’t shy away from it.”
Daryl never gave up – and audiences, for their part, never abandoned him. He also gave us one of the most touching relationships in The Walking Dead – his friendship with the traumatised Carol (Melissa McBride), a woman who had been forced into terrible violence when the zombies took over and had never forgiven herself for what she had done. She and Daryl were fellow damaged souls who had stood by one another – a shining example of friendship amid all the shambling corpses and gushing arteries.
The original plan was for Daryl and Carol to reunite for the new series, which takes up the story after the The Walking Dead concluded with Daryl helping to defeat Pamela Milton, ruler of the villainous Commonwealth. For reasons unknown that hasn’t worked out, and it’s just Daryl on his own in France.
Still, Walking Dead devotees will be eager to see what he gets up to next. More than that, they will be anxious Daryl Dixon doesn’t sabotage a character whom we could always rely on to do the right thing and to stand by his friends. Daryl was a throwback to an older sort of TV hero – selfless, taciturn, and steadfast. It’s great to have him back – but like I said, let’s just hope they haven’t ruined him.
‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ is streaming on Now and continues next Thursday at 9pm on Sky Max.
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