‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2 Review: Is This Necessary?

Even though The Walking Dead ended in 2022, a few spin-offs continuing the stories of fan favorites have been releasing since then. The journey of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne Hawthorne (Danai Gurira) finally reuniting took place in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon follows Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and eventually Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) as The Walking Dead universe expands overseas. The third major spin-off from the original series is The Walking Dead: Dead City, reuniting Negan Smith (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) as their journey takes them to New York City.

What Is ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ About?

In The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1, the paths of Negan and Maggie cross once again, because reluctantly, Maggie needs Negan’s help. Her son, Hershel (Logan Kim), has been kidnapped and brought to Manhattan by someone from Negan’s past. This someone is The Croat (Zeljko Ivanek), a man who was a part of Negan’s inner circle when he ran The Sanctuary, until The Croat took things too far when he tortured and killed a young girl against Negan’s orders. Negan tried to kill him, but only hit his ear with a gunshot, leaving him disfigured but free.

As the duo makes their way, they witness the terror of zombies in a major city, including them falling from the sky as they walk straight off the tall buildings, plummeting to the ground. They were also followed by a New Babylon Federation marshal, Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles), who is after Negan for his crimes against the Federation, which feels like a pretty unneeded subplot, at least in Season 1.

As Maggie and Negan’s mission comes to a close, Negan realizes it was all a setup. Hershel did get kidnapped, but The Croat offered a fair trade — Hershel for Negan. Negan, thinking The Croat wants revenge, accepts his fate after all the wrongdoings he has committed in his life, but is wanted for a greater purpose: to help The Croat’s boss, The Dama (Lisa Emery), rally the anarchy-laced groups that inhabit the city under one rule. She believes Negan’s famed ruthless nature from The Sanctuary is exactly what they need to take over the city.

Season 1 of The Walking Dead: Dead City felt more like a buildup to something bigger than anything, so my hope for Season 2 would be utter chaos. Negan has taken this new role disheartenedly to ensure the safety of Maggie and her family, while Maggie is finally ready to let go of her grudge with Negan that has driven a wedge between her and her son. Unfortunately, that is not the case as Season 2 feels like more of the same.

‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2 Feels Like a Massive Step Backward

As Season 2 kicks off, Negan is fighting taking up the mantle and being the muscle The Dama wants him to be, only to step into that role anyway. Maggie gets dragged back to New York City after Perlie arrives with more members of the New Babylon Federation, forcing Maggie to join them in their efforts to score some methane from the city to bring power back to the mainland. The Walking Dead has a trademark of killing off characters in shocking ways right after fans fall in love with them, but with The Walking Dead: Dead City, it feels like most new characters are only introduced to be canon fodder.

The series continuously retreads old themes instead of moving forward in an interesting way. Negan is forced to do bad things he is conflicted with, which was explored in great length in the original series. While Maggie seems to finally be over her grudge with Negan, the circumstances of Season 2 have placed them at odds again, uncertain whether she will attempt to save her once sworn enemy and finally bury the hatchet. The plus side is that, with 6 out of the 8 episodes of the season provided for review, the final two episodes can deliver some closure, making this series feel a bit more worth watching.

In times like the present, where fans are spoiled with incredible post-apocalyptic content like The Last of Us, Fallout, Silo, and so much more, The Walking Dead universe seems mostly set in its old ways instead of adapting to the current times. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is the outlier among the bunch, as it very much furthered a story and gave closure to beloved characters instead of repeating themes and character arcs we’ve already seen.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2 premieres on AMC and AMC+ on May 4 with new episodes every Sunday. Follow Agents of Fandom on socials for all the latest entertainment news and reviews.