Daryl Dixon is a return to The Walking Dead’s glory years

The first seasons are worth revisiting, given how many characters would be added later, including various leadership groups and factions. The Walking DeadIt can be refreshing. It’s a refreshing change from the later episodes. The first episode, in which Rick Grimes tries to survive in an apocalyptic hellscape is stripped down. It’s a feeling Greg Nicotero, special makeup effects expert and co-founder of KNB EFX Group, would try to recapture when working on the latest spinoff, The Walking Dead : Daryl DixonThe premiere of’s Sept. 10, on AMC.

Nicotero is a key player on Daryl Dixon — he directs a few episodes, is an executive producer, and still maintains his guiding hand in the franchise’s gory look. He’s been a part of The Walking DeadIt has been running for 15 years, ever since it debuted, when Frank Darabont was the showrunner. He’d been brought on because they needed his expertise, and no one knew how to put together a zombie horde with ghoulish practical effects quite like Nicotero — his main introduction to the business had been working with makeup guru Tom Savini on George Romero’s Day of the Dead.

Nicotero wanted at least to be able to go back to the start of this project, if only in spirit. “It was really like starting all over again and doing what Frank Darabont and I did in season 1,” Nicotero said of this new Daryl Dixon-led project. Here, we find Daryl, the rough-edged co-lead and series mascot (“The Robin to Andrew Lincoln’s Batman,” as Nicotero puts it), stranded in France and desperate to get back home to the U.S. Daryl’s new adventures are surprisingly easy to follow, even though it is a spinoff from a long-running series. The first episode from the original series is similar. Daryl Dixon is a mostly contained experience, set against the backdrop of “the romanticism of Europe and the beautiful landscapes,” featuring locations like the Eiffel Tower and, in a cool touch, the Paris Catacombs.

Photo: Emmanuel Guimier/AMC

It wasn’t just Nicotero that wanted a more bare-bones narrative. Norman Reedus, the actor playing Daryl, had always “really loved the idea of sort of emulating old shows like Bronson, the Next GenerationYou can also find out more about the following: Kung FuOr even The Incredible Hulk,” Nicotero explained. “You come across the person and over the course of the episode, they meet people, and then at the end of the episode, they leave. The people are changed because of it, and he’s changed because of it.” Daryl, who had spent much of The Walking DeadAfter following Rick’s group, is now his own leader, affecting the lives of other with his gruff but charming loyalty.

Reedus never had the opportunity to carry the show, as he was always a member of an expanding cast. And now, as the nucleus of his own new “found family” unit (Clémence Poésy, Laika Blanc Francard, and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi play the other members of his traveling group), they’re able to move the series beyond just being “The Walking Dead in Paris.” By the end, The Walking Dead had come to rely on a decade of continuity, and the safe bet would be to just replicate its last season’s offerings in a new place, with Daryl fitting into a familiar role. Daryl is no longer the sweaty crossbow-wielding zombie killer who was once the symbol of the series. He’s now the hero that holds it together.

“I think what was really the most important thing on Daryl DixonThe original DNA that made up the first season of The Walking Dead so good,” Nicotero said, “which was keeping the stories singular and focused. When you think back to the first episode, Rick was searching for his wife and children. We’ve gone back to those sort of building blocks.” It’s a goal that fuels the entire show. The early years of the show are as important. Walking DeadThe purpose of the story was to give its characters some kind of direction. Daryl DixonThis same energy is given to the titular protagonist.

“I think Daryl feels like there’s more for him to do. Daryl knows that there are other people in the world out there that need him,” Nicotero said. “Daryl really does have a big heart, and would do anything for people, even though he may start for the wrong reasons. He can’t help himself.”

Photo: Emmanuel Guimier/AMC

Of course, it wouldn’t be The Walking DeadNicotero would not have made his name on zombies, gruesome effects and other such things. It’s also Daryl Dixon doesn’t disappoint there — there’s an early disembowelment that might have you wincing, and one set-piece in the series includes a macabre orchestra of sorts. “Look, it’s always a thin line that you tread, because you don’t want to take the teeth out of your monster,” Nicotero explained, talking about this specific show but in a way that also applies to a nearly 15-year-old franchise that has expanded into a merchandising behemoth.

Nicotero, though, doesn’t see spinoffs like Daryl Dixon as diluting The Walking Dead. They explore it from different angles. Recent studies have shown that the recent Dead City, starring enemies Maggie and Negan, was almost a “continuation” of The Walking Dead. Meanwhile, next year’s The Walking Dead – The ones who live sends the katana-wielding Michonne on a “journey” to find Rick Grimes, one that takes her far away from the communities that she’d previously been a part of.

The following are some of the ways to improve your understanding. Daryl Dixon is a chance to rediscover the efficacy of what many consider the show’s “glory years,” and give Daryl the narrative spotlight that he’s always just been on the cusp of. It’s an effort that Nicotero is particularly proud of. When told that it’s one of my favorite installments in the entire franchise, Nicotero quickly responded: “Mine too, by the way.”