The Walking Dead is ending with its eleventh season this year, but the franchise is far from finished. AMC has just announced a fifth spinoff series dubbed Isle of the Dead, along with news that the new show will arrive on AMC and AMC+ in 2023. What’s known about this new spinoff is that it will focus on Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and its freshman season will consist of six episodes, presumably with the option of moving forward with more if the show is well-received.

In Isle of the Dead, “Maggie and Negan are traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror.”

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The Walking Dead Universe chief content officer Scott M. Gimple will oversee the spinoff, collaborating with showrunner Eli Jorne a part of an overall deal with AMC Studio. Jorne will also executive produce with Cohan and Morgan.

“Eli has created a chaotic, beautiful, grimy madhouse of the dead for Negan, Maggie, and fans of the show eager to discover an unseen and insane world of the TWD Universe,” Gimple said in a statement. “Lauren and Jeffrey have always been fantastic collaborators and now, we bring that collaboration to the next level with a series that will take these characters to their limits with the world — and each other. All of us are thrilled to take you on an all new, all different TWD epic for the ages.”

“This is a very big day for the expanding universe we are building around The Walking Dead,” adds Dan McDermott, President of Entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “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.”

The Walking Dead Lives On Through Its Spinoffs

     AMC

We are not at six separate shows in the walker-filled TV universe. The first spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead, is going strong with a recent renewal for season 8. A limited series, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, ran for two seasons. Previously, it was announced that Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride would get their own spinoff following Daryl Dixon and Carol. Meanwhile, the anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead will imagine new stories told in every episode with different characters, including some we’ll recognize from The Walking Dead.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is stoked to follow it all with Isle of the Dead. He has been playing Negan since 2016, coming into the show in a controversial way by killing off two fan favorites in brutal fashion. How strange is it that he’ll now be starring in a Negan series with Lauren Cohan alongside him as Maggie? Fans probably weren’t predicting this at all in 2016.

“I’m delighted that Negan and Maggie’s journey continues,” Morgan said. “It’s been such a ride walking in Negan’s shoes, I’m beyond excited to continue his journey in New York City with Lauren. Walkers in an urban setting has always been such a cool image, but 5th Avenue, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty? The greatest city in the world?? The backdrop is amazing, but it’s the story that Eli Jorné cooked up that is even better. Buckle up folks, Isle of the Dead is going to reinvent the TWD Universe. Huge thank you to Dan McDermott, Scott Gimple and AMC for having us back for more… we simply can’t wait.”