Another spinoff of AMC’s The Walking Dead is experiencing a big change.
The currently filming Maggie and Negan spinoff that was introduced to viewers as Isle of the Dead when it nabbed a formal pickup earlier this year has a new name.
Entertainment Weekly reports that the new series will now be called The Walking Dead: Dead City.
No details have been given for the change, but if we look at past spinoffs, all of them included the term “The Walking Dead.”
Granted, that brand name alone will get people watching, and it’s possible AMC was worried that people wouldn’t correlate Isle of the Dead with the franchise.
Just a thought.
Then again, Isle of the Dead had a cool ring to it, so it’s a shame the name has been changed.
As previously reported Isle of the Dead The Walking Dead: Deady City will take viewers to New York City on a journey with sworn enemies, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
The series takes viewers to “a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland,” according to the network.
“The crumbling city,” AMC adds, “is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty and terror.”
Longtime TWD writer Eli Jorné will serve as showrunner on the drama via his overall deal with AMC Studios.
TWD Universe content chief Scott M. Gimple will oversee the project, which is set to debut in 2023, and will span just six episodes.
It is unclear whether the project is being deemed a miniseries, or if it will lead to future seasons depending on its success.
“This is a very big day for the expanding universe we are building around The Walking Dead,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks when the show got a series order in March.
“It not only adds another compelling series to this collection, it extends our storytelling around two unforgettable characters fans have grown to love, hate or hate and then love in Maggie and Negan, brilliantly inhabited by Lauren and Jeffrey.”
“It also lets us explore a corner of this universe located on the island of Manhattan, with an iconic skyline that takes on a very different meaning when viewed through the lens of a zombie apocalypse.”
With the main series wrapping up, The Walking Dead: Dead City joins Fear the Walking Dead, Tales of the Walking Dead, a Daryl spinoff, and a Rick & Michonne spinoff as the live-action offerings going into 2023.
What are your thoughts on the big name change?
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.