The Walking Dead: Dead City, or simply Dead City, is an American post-apocalyptic horror drama television series created by Eli Jorné for AMC, based on The Walking Dead characters Maggie and Negan. It is the first sequel to The Walking Dead television series, and the fifth series in The Walking Dead franchise, sharing continuity with the other television series. Jorné served as showrunner for the first two seasons before departing the show and being replaced by Seth Hoffman.
Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan reprise their roles as Maggie and Negan from the original television series, with Gaius Charles, à ½eljko Ivanek, Mahina Napoleon, Lisa Emery, Logan Kim, Dascha Polanco, and Keir Gilchrist also starring. Development of the series began in March 2022, with its title revealed that month and renamed in August. Additional castings were announced in October and November 2022. Principal photography began in July 2022 in New Jersey and concluded in October 2022.
The first season premiered on June 18, 2023, and consists of six episodes. In July 2023, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on May 4, 2025. In July 2025, the series was renewed for a third season.
The series follows Maggie and Negan traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan cut off from the mainland in search of Maggie's kidnapped son, Hershel.â¯The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of chaos, danger, beauty, and terror.
The following writers were credited for the episodes, respectively: Seth Hoffman; Matthew Negrete; Mira Z. Barnum; Negrete & Jacey Heldrich; Justin Boyd; Heldrich; Hoffman; and Barnum & Boyd.
In March 2022, AMC reported that they were developing a fourth spin-off of The Walking Dead titled Isle of the Dead revolving around Maggie and Negan with Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan reprising their respective roles from the original series and Eli Jorné, a writer and co-executive producer on The Walking Dead, attached as showrunner alongside Cohan and Morgan as executive producers. In late August, the series title was renamed to The Walking Dead: Dead City. In July 2023, the series was renewed for a second season. In July 2025, the series was renewed for a third season, with Seth Hoffman taking over as showrunner. Hoffman was a writer and co-executive producer on The Walking Dead during its fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons.
In April 2022, Gaius Charles was cast as Perlie Armstrong. In July, à ½eljko Ivanek, Jonathan Higginbotham, and Mahina Napoleon were cast as "The Croat", Tommaso, and Ginny respectively.
In April 2024, Kim Coates was announced to have joined the cast for the second season. In July, Keir Gilchrist, Dascha Polanco, Jake Weary, and Pooya Mohseni were announced to have joined the cast. In February 2025, the main cast for the second season was confirmed.
In September 2025, Aimee Garcia and Jimmi Simpson were announced to have joined the cast as series regulars for the third season. In October, Raúl Castillo joined the cast as a series regular.
Principal photography for the first season began on July 19 in New Jersey and wrapped on October 24, 2022. Locations include the Meadowlands Arena, Franklin Lakes Nature Preserve, Port Newark, National Newark Building, Newark Symphony Hall, Hoboken Terminal, Liberty State Park and Shades of Death Road.
Filming for the second season began by April 8, 2024, in Taunton, Massachusetts. Michael E. Satrazemis, who previously directed episodes of The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and ' would be directing, with Adam Suschitzky serving as cinematographer. Filming had wrapped by July 15, 2024, in Massachusetts. Co-star and executive producer Lauren Cohan directed episode 6, although she was erroneously said to also direct episode 4.
Filming for the third season began by September 8, 2025, in Brockton, Massachusetts. Additional Massachusetts filming occurred in Boston and Worcester.
In November 2022, an early look on the behind the scenes of the series was released by AMC.
The Walking Dead: Dead City premiered on AMC on June 18, 2023. The series premiered early on AMC+ on June 15, with subsequent episodes available three days before their broadcast premieres. The first season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 12, 2023.
The second season premiered on May 4, 2025. The second season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 7, 2025.
For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 80% approval rating based on 58 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While Dead City still creaks under the constraints of being an umpteenth spinoff, it ultimately shakes off the franchise's rigor mortis thanks to a change of scenery and a focus on two fan favorites." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 58 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
For the second season, Rotten Tomatoes reported an 63% approval rating based on 8 critic reviews.