Beware: AMC’s “The Walking Dead: Dead City” Season 3 is coming. And it might be the best one yet.
“This is our best season – by far. This is such a different relationship now,” said Jeffrey Dean Morgan at Monte-Carlo Television Festival on Saturday, following the premiere of the first two episodes at the festival opening the evening before.
On Saturday, Morgan, showrunner Seth Hoffman and Lauren Cohan met with journalists at the festival to talk about Maggie and Negan, still trying to survive while navigating post-apocalyptic Manhattan.
“Negan was a great villain and now he just got more layers,” Morgan said. “He will always be this person that walked out of a trailer 11 years ago, but he’s more multidimensional. This year there’s such a shift in their relationship that brings out yet another side of him.”
“That’s why I want to play him. It’s still new to me, every year. Who would do a series with two enemies who wanted to kill each other? And yet here we are.”
According to Cohan, grief “has defined” Maggie. But now, things are changing a little.
“This is really the first year when Maggie recognizes that to be defined by grief doesn’t serve her anymore. It started in Season 2 with her son – she knew that something had to change, which was very uncomfortable. There’s something bigger: a bigger purpose.”
“We are these unlikely allies that realize how much they can rely on each other and how much they know each other. The irony of their relationship, with how they met, is interesting.”
Morgan agreed: “We played as much hate as we could over the last 10 years. Now, we have known each other longer than anyone else alive. To survive, they need each other, and that was a big revelation. To see Maggie smile was so nice – haven’t seen it in 10 years!”
“To have scenes that have genuine meaning and depth, it was amazing. We got to see new sides of each other. She didn’t even stab me one time!”
Hoffman opened up about the alternate reality episode.
“I hope I can look at this show from a fan’s perspective, and there was one thing they wanted to see – characters that maybe we haven’t seen for a long time.”
He added: “You get to see who Maggie and Negan would have been if the apocalypse hadn’t happened. Despite the terrible trauma and all the things they have done, you get to ask the question: Are they better off having gone through a zombie apocalypse?”
Is the show relevant given what’s happening today, also in the U.S.?
“Maggie, in the first episodes, is very scared that bad things will happen if strangers come to her community. She can only contemplate the bad side of what that might bring. With the help of Negan, she begins to understand that bringing people into the community brings it life. We are aware that not everyone in the U.S. has that idea,” said Hoffman.
“This season, moving forward, is going to ask that question.”
They are also exploring “male loneliness.”
“They struggle to find connection. Also, this is a season that’s about immigration. They are not going from country to country, but this is a world where people are afraid of other people. We are asking: ‘Do you need to be?’ As the season progresses, people will have different opinions on that. And so will the audience.”
Cohan noted: “Also, [the idea of] choosing to have a child, now, that’s the ultimate sign of hope. Hope in the times when you could give up.”
Still, some things remain exactly the same – Negan’s iconic baseball bat is crucial to him, even though the batteries have run out.
“Lucille is Lucille. It’s the only prop I’ve ever had as an actor that I really love. It changes my posture and the way I talk. I am not really Negan, I know it’s a shock, but she indicated this character for me.”
While some characters don’t make it in this universe – “We have lost a lot of people in this show and you never get good at losing them,” observed Morgan – they still want to push some boundaries and “do things you haven’t seen before,” said Hoffman.
“This season, we are exploring the humanity of the Walkers. We have recurring Walker characters that have names and personalities, to some extent. We also want people to think: ‘This is still ‘The Walking Dead,’ but it’s also brand new.’”
“The way I work, and not all showrunners work this way, is that it’s uncomfortable for me to think about big ideas and then force production to do them. I try to figure out what’s possible, and write that,” he said, discussing a sequence in a Broadway theater.
“The budget is different than it was for ‘The Walking Dead,’ but the hope is we are not feeling it. We are putting the money where it counts.”
Recalling some famous moments from the show, and its brutality, Hoffman stated: “I don’t love ‘The Walking Dead’ because of the brutality. There are shows that make you think and this one makes you feel. We don’t need to make our audience uncomfortable.”
“Such a cop-out,” laughed Morgan, mentioning – to the delight of the audience – the unforgettable eye-popping scene.
“I remember Steven [Yeun] with all these prosthetics, singing and dancing in his make-up trailer, having the best time. Now, it would be a TikTok video.”
