Once The Walking Dead ended after 11 seasons back in 2022, fans took solace in the fact that not one, not two, but three new spin-offs would be coming. Alongside The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which has been renewed for a third season, and the well-reviewed The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, there’s The Walking Dead: Dead City. The series is set five years after the events of The Walking Dead and centers around fan-favorite reformed villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and badass hero Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who have both somehow ended up in New York City.
Nearly two years after season 1 premiered, season two is almost here, with the first episode premiering May 4, 2025. The eight-episode season is two more than season one, with episodes released weekly through June 22, 2025. With this lengthy passage of time, a recap of the events from season one is in order.
Negan and Maggie become an unlikely pair in the Big Apple
The season begins when Maggie seeks Negan’s help. Her son, Hershel (Logan Kim), has been kidnapped by a man she believes has ties to the Saviors. She thinks Negan might be able to get through to him because of this, so she implores her old foe to help. Feeling as though he’s obligated to do so (he did, after all, bash Maggie’s husband and Hershel’s father’s head in with a barbed wire bat and has been seeking forgiveness ever since), and knowing who this mysterious man is and what he’s capable of, Negan obliges. Plus, the new authority in town, the New Babylon Federation, is after Negan. He is wanted for murder for her numerous kills. It’s the perfect time to get out of dodge.
Off the pair go to the island of Manhattan to seek out this evil man known as The Croat (Željko Ivanek). A young selectively mute teen named Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) has been hanging on to Negan, but he has her set up in Maggie’s community for safety while he’s away. She doesn’t listen, however, and secretly follows them there. Someone else follows the duo: Perlie (Gaius Charles), an officer with the New Babylon Federation who vows to bring Negan in to pay for his crimes at all costs.
Maggie struggles traveling alone with Negan, especially when she sees glimpses of the “old Negan” shining through, like when he guts a young man while standing over a railing and tosses his mangled body to his allies on the floor below. Negan needs these enemies to understand that they mean business. However, Negan is on Maggie’s side this time. Still, Maggie’s trauma leads to her nightmares.
Through their quest, the duo meets others, both friends and foes. Perlie is captured for a time by The Croat, but eventually escapes, ironically with Negan’s help. Perlie, Negan, and Maggie share some heartwarming moments. Perlie is all about the rule of law, but he questions it after Negan reveals that the men he killed had raped and beaten his wife. Perlie fails to capture Negan and tells his leader that Negan is dead. He also trades some useful information in hopes of making up for not bringing him in. Perlie reveals details of the fuel source being produced on the island, which intrigues his boss.
Meanwhile, Negan is angry when he discovers that Ginny has followed him. Negan tells her that he murdered her father, implying that one of the men who beat and raped his wife was her dad and that’s why he felt compelled to take her in. It’s unclear if he’s telling the truth. Nonetheless, Ginny is devastated by this knowledge and takes off.
Negan and Maggie eventually find Hershel (Logan Kim). While The Croat might be running the group known as the Burazi, a woman known as The Dama (Lisa Emery) is in charge. Also, The Croat wanted to exchange Negan for Hershel, and Maggie lied to get Negan to help her.
In his usual “oh well” style, Negan is fine with it. He probably deserves this anyway, and his priority is ensuring that a child is not harmed. So, he goes along willingly, and Maggie reunites with her son.
Negan gets an offer he probably can’t refuse
As it turns out, however, The Croat, who was one of the few people Negan actually sent away from the Saviors for harming a teenager against his instructions, doesn’t want to hurt Negan. He has regaled tales of this vicious, manipulative, cunning leader to The Dama, and she wants him on her side. He might be the only person who can help.
At the end of season one, The Dama sits Negan down with a drink and an offer. She wants to unite all the groups on the island together to fight the New Babylon Federation, which she knows is coming. The Croat is a brilliant scientific mind, and he devised a way to use the methane that is naturally produced by walker bodies and turn it into a better source of fuel than ethanol. It’s easy to see why the New Babylon Federation wants to get its hands on this valuable resource and why the Dama wants to protect it.
Negan is not interested, but The Dama implies that she isn’t asking. She hands him a small box, a token of her appreciation. He opens it, and inside is a severed toe. It’s Hershel’s toe. It’s a not-so-veiled threat that if he doesn’t oblige, she will kill Hershel. Negan doesn’t provide his answer, but based on the bat-wielding images of him in the trailer for season two, it might convince him to do so if it means preventing Hershel from being harmed.
Meanwhile, back at home, something is different with Hershel. He’s still a usual brooding teenager, but he seems more off than usual, understandable given what he just went through. He reveals to his mother that he feels like her obsession with Negan and what he did to Glenn (Steven Yeun) has taken all her attention his entire life, and he’s had enough. She agrees and promises to finally put that feud to bed for the sake of her son. But when Maggie finds one of Hershel’s recent drawings of an older woman smiling, she realizes that whoever this mysterious woman is still has a hold on her son.
Season two will pick up in the aftermath as Negan prepares to give his answer, the New Babylon Federation plots its attack, and Maggie somehow gets roped into it all.
Stream The Walking Dead: Dead City on AMC+. Season 1 is also available on Netflix.
