What makes The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon different from the original show? It’s look, and how character’s journey leans into the beauty of France

‘It’s a different animal and it’s beautiful, it’s touching,’ The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon star Norman Reedus said of the zombie spin-off

The people behind it explain how its French setting and European collaborators have given the show a very different, and more cinematic, flavour

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Norman Reedus in a scene from “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon”. The spin-off from the popular “The Walking Dead” series serves up a cinematic trip through France. Photo: AMC via AP

Published: 5:15pm, 15 Sep 2023

Walking Dead fans hungry for more of the same from France-set spin-off The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will be served a very different dish, at least cinematically.

In an interview before the SAG-AFTRA strike, its star Norman Reedus said: “We’re making art. … It’s a different animal and it’s beautiful, it’s touching.”

Apart from cornerstones Reedus and executive producer Greg Nicotero, and showrunner David Zabel, many key collaborators are European. And it shows.

“It wasn’t about driving past cool locations” in France, says Nicotero, “but embracing Daryl’s journey from Marseilles through Lyon and up to Paris, and ultimately Normandy.”

Greg Nicotero cradles the severed head of a character from “The Walking Dead” at his studio in California. Working with a European team as executive producer of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” brought new perspectives, Photo: AFP

Daniel Percival, who is British, directed four of the six episodes of season one. “I’m a European filmmaker, really. So it was exciting that they really wanted to be very cinematic with it.”

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