At the end of The Walking Dead in 2022, Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) son, Hershel (Logan Kim), goes missing from her adopted community, Bricks. He was abducted by the Croat (Zeljko Ivanek, who was not in The Walking Dead), who was an ex-Savior (Negan’s old gang), and taken to Manhattan, which has now become a wasteland with skyscrapers and warring factions. It is at the behest of the Dama (Lisa Emery), whom viewers meet at the end of the first season of The Walking Dead: Dead City, which premiered on AMC on June 18, 2023.
The kicker of this new spin-off of The Walking Dead was that Maggie went with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who killed her husband, Glenn (Steven Yeun), earlier in the series. Negan was on the run from the New Babylon community for killing five of theirs because they assaulted his wife, so it worked out. A changed man, Negan helps Maggie retrieve Hershel with his unique brand of skill. Then, she trades Negan to the Croatians for Hershel and moves on. However, nothing in the The Walking Dead universe is that cut and dry.
Negan had a de facto daughter, Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), whose dad, unbeknownst to her, was killed by Negan. Not knowing, she was trying to warn him about Maggie’s intentions, a fact she learned under the guise of being mute, which she would choose after her dad’s murder. Yeah, it was messy. By season’s end, Maggie traded Negan for Hershel, telling him she would lie about the grain theft to get Negan into Manhattan. Still, he didn’t fight. He only asked Maggie to look after Ginny. However, Hershel and Maggie’s reunion was frosty at best since he accused Maggie of caring more about revenge than him, and she began to question her own obsession, but did that stop her? No.
The hindrance to the success of season one of The Walking Dead: Dead City was Maggie. She needed Negan to get Hershel back, but at the same time, her hatred for him, rightfully so (Glenn’s death was graphically brutal), has her constantly scheming how to take him out, but she, like in The Walking Dead, always had her chance, but for some reason, never pulled the trigger. This got old then; carrying the same tired storyline has only grown even more tired last season… even Hershel said so, while the Dama gets into his head. This brings us to the second season of The Walking Dead: Dead City, which premiered on May 4, 2025, with the episode Power Equals Power and concluded on June 22, 2025, with If History Were a Conflagration.
The beginning of an eight-episode season, Power Equals Power sees a neutered Negan imprisoned for a year, refusing to lead the Damas’ empire. To force his hand, she kidnapped his wife, Annie (Medina Senghore), and son Joshua. To protect them, Negan wields a new electrified Lucille that was gifted by the Croat and performs at a brutal underground summit, shocking rival gang leader Christos to death to assert dominance. The Dama and Croat want him to unite Manhattan’s factions against New Babylon, which is planning a full-scale invasion. The thing’s Maggie’s joined New Babylon, albeit under duress. Ginny insists on joining her while Hershel’s obsession with the Dama deepens.
New to this season’s party features Kim Coate as Bruegel, Dascha Polanco as Major Lucia Narvaez, Keir Gilchrist as Christos, Pooya Mohseni as Roksana, Anthony Molinari as General Houseman, Jasmin Walker as Governor Charlie Byrd, and Ari Loeb as Jason Ornell as the power struggle intensifies with the lucrative ethanol supply in the middle. Of course, every individual has their agenda and ways of achieving it.
At its core, any zombie/walker movie/show, from the beginning with 1932’s White Zombie, is not about how zombies act; it is about how we act with each other in the new norm. Some individuals band together cohesively, others band together, but ultimately implode.
Again, the hindrance of The Walking Dead: Dead City’s second season is Maggie’s relentless bitching about Negan, but doing nothing to remedy the sitch. Almost every interaction with Hershel’s a conflict, whether it’s Dama getting in his head or him calling her out on her stuff. One could chalk it up to teen angst, but Hershel’s honestly looking for a stable mother figure. Maggie does have some character development in the last episode, but it is a case of too little too late, so he has to choose between the two evils in his mind.
Earlier, it was noted that Negan appears to be neutered, as his bravado, which people had come to expect, is nonexistent. Has he been tamed, or is he playing the long game, waiting for his chance to flip the script? Truthfully, he has the most character development despite some gripes that he has gotten boring.
Ginny, the silent observer, serves as both the moral compass and collateral damage of the season and the show as a whole. She is blissfully ignorant of her dad’s death cause…until she isn’t. Then, like Maggie, she looks for the opportune time to avenge him. That said, her arch is tragic.
The first season of The Walking Dead: Dead City had a polarized reaction from fans. Sadly, Season 2 fared even worse, despite being available to watch unedited on AMC+. Furthermore, many are not happy with where Robert Kirkman (the creator of The Walking Dead universe) and company have taken the story.
In an interesting turn of events, Eli Jorné (the showrunner of the first two seasons of The Walking Dead: Dead City) will not be returning, with Seth Hoffman taking over for a third season. For those who recall, Hoffman served as a writer on the original The Walking Dead series, contributing to episodes in Seasons 4 through 6. Here is hoping that Hoffman and all others involved with The Walking Dead: Dead City can turn things around in fans’ eyes for season three, which is reportedly set to premiere in mid-2027. Until then, Cryptic Rock reserves harsher judgment on The Walking Dead: Dead City, giving it 4 of 5 stars.
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