Daryl Dixon Season 3 Left London Quick For Good Reason, Says TWD Boss

The popular Walking Dead spinoff, Daryl Dixon, has switched locations for its upcoming third season, and The Walking Dead senior producer Greg Nicotero has explained why. At the end of Daryl Dixon season 2, the title character, alongside Carol, ditches France and decides to travel to London.

Daryl Dixon acts as the fifth spinoff of The Walking Dead. The show's third season will premiere September 7, 2025 on AMC, and will also be available to stream via AMC+. Daryl Dixon stars Norman Reedus in the title role, and also stars Melissa McBride, who was part of The Walking Dead's main cast.

In season 3 of The Walking Dead spinoff, Daryl and Carol do end up in London, but the main setting of the season is Spain. In an interview with ScreenRant's Owen Danoff, Nicotero revealed that the idea for Daryl Dixon is to set it in a different country each season. This is to ensure the series feels like its own thing. Check out Nicotero's comments below:

ScreenRant: "How did you all land on Spain for this? Was there ever another country in the running, or even just staying in London? Because even that first episode is really visually captivating."

Greg Nicotero: "Well, I think it was about halfway through season one, when we were in France, that the idea of having Daryl be more mobile came up. I remember thinking, 'Wow, that’s a great idea; every season [could] be a different country, and we could really spread our wings around all of Europe.' We spent 15 years of the show in Alexandria and in Georgia, and being able to see what the reset would be once the zombie apocalypse happens in France or in Spain. I do think at one point we talked about maybe there being an entire season in London. I know Ireland came up at one point, and I think the thinking was, 'Well, it’s really green there,' and we didn’t want it to feel too similar to The Walking Dead in Georgia where green was everywhere. So we made conscious decisions to explore locations that we felt had a lot of rich material [and] culture to mine, and we’re talking thousands of years of culture, which really was exciting to us."

What This Means For Daryl Dixon

The first two seasons of Daryl Dixon took place in France. However, Nicotero implies in his interview that no season will take place in the same location as the last again. It seems like the show is becoming an anthology of sorts, but with only the location changing instead of the overarching story.

Daryl Dixon's first season premiered on September 10, 2023.

Spanish actors Eduardo Noriega, Óscar Jaenada, Alexandra Masangkay, Hugo Arbués, and Candela Saitta have joined the main cast for Daryl Dixon season 3. This indicates that the season will hopefully accurately depict Spanish culture. The season may also revisit some old Walking Dead plot points.

Our Take On Nicotero's Comments

The fact that Daryl Dixon continues to move between different countries is exciting and fresh. It almost feels inspired by The White Lotus, but in a different kind of way, since the central characters will stay the same in Daryl Dixon season 3.

Nevertheless, this approach will help lure in more viewers, especially international TV fans. Daryl Dixon is a truly promising Walking Dead spinoff that tries new approaches to help it stand out even further.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3, Episode 1 Review: Stephen Merchant Is The Standout Of A Solid If Unspectacular Season Premiere

Now that they’ve left France, this series is starting to feel like National Lampoon’s European Vacation with zombies. In this episode alone, their sightseeing trip takes them to two more European nations. After Daryl Dixon season 2 ended with Daryl and Carol making their way through a hallucinogen-infested Channel Tunnel, season 3 picks up with their arrival in a mostly deserted England.

As a Brit, I got a real kick out of seeing the Walking Dead-ified version of my homeland. My hat goes off to the VFX and production design teams for creating such a fully realized vision of post-apocalyptic London on a TV budget. They threw in a lot of inventive little visual flourishes, too: a zombie trapped in a red telephone box; a quarantine zone with “SOD OFF!” spray-painted on the wall; Tower Bridge permanently stuck in the “up” position. Big Ben proves to be a handy tool to draw hordes of the undead away.

Guest Star Stephen Merchant Makes This An Episode To Remember

Merchant Gives A Great Turn As The Omega Englishman

Seeing Stephen Merchant in a Walking Dead show wasn’t on my bingo card for this year, but he makes the episode. Merchant’s Julian Chamberlain believes he’s the only survivor left in the UK; “the last Englishman in England,” as he puts it. He was perfect casting for this role. As seen in Hello Ladies, The Outlaws, and his own standup, Merchant plays awkwardness really well. Since Julian hasn’t seen another human being in years, his social skills have gotten a bit rusty, so this role demands awkwardness. But Merchant also shows off his surprising dramatic abilities when Julian talks about his regrets, his self-doubts, and his unimaginable loneliness.

Of course, it’s Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride’s show, and their on-screen chemistry is as strong as ever. I appreciated that Jason Richman and David Zabel didn’t overwrite the episode. In a lot of recent TV shows, from The Last of Us to Dune: Prophecy, the writers have felt the need to spell out every little emotional turn in on-the-nose, plain-as-day dialogue. But not everything needs to be said out loud, especially between two people who know each other as well as Daryl and Carol. Richman and Zabel leave plenty of room for unspoken moments between Reedus and McBride.

Daryl Dixon Season 3's Plotting Feels A Bit Rushed

The Premiere Episode Can't Wait To Get To Spain

When it was announced that season 3 would be set in Spain after the season 2 finale established a UK setting, I expected some plot contrivances to be involved in the pivot to yet another new country. But it’s not so much that the plot is contrived; they set sail from England, hit a storm on their way back to America, and wash up in Spain, which all makes sense from a dramatic and logical standpoint. The problem is that the pacing feels a bit rushed.

In the space of just one episode, this premiere races through enough material for a whole season set in England to get to the story in Spain.

In the space of just one episode, this premiere races through enough material for a whole season set in England to get to the story in Spain. It would’ve been a much neater transition if they’d set up the journey to Spain at the end of season 2 or set the Spain storyline in England. But cinematically, the Spanish setting is a treat. Once they arrive in Spain and the sun comes up, the visuals are gorgeous — it looks like a post-apocalyptic spaghetti western.

Spain turns out to be even more hostile than France. Not too long after they’ve crashed on a beach, their shipwreck is inspected by a creepy cult on horseback, wielding torches and wearing masks made of animal skulls. I can’t remember the last time The Walking Dead franchise genuinely scared me — especially since the characters have gotten so used to killing zombies that it’s become a mundane chore, not a fight for survival — but the first appearance of that group in this episode really creeped me out.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon airs new episodes on AMC every Sunday.

Overall, the third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has gotten off to a solid start. The overgrown Spanish countryside, full of zombies and unhinged cultists, is a fascinating new setting for these characters to explore. Daryl and Carol have an endlessly watchable dynamic, and the final scene of the episode — in which Daryl sees those bad dudes riding through again, returns to his camp, and finds that Carol is missing — is a strong enough hook to have me excited about where it’ll go next week.

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