Dead City’s Skull-Smashing Season 2 Trailer

The Walking Dead: Dead City, the franchise’s second-best spin-off 2022 finale, has dropped the first full-length trailer for Season 2. A delightfully bashful premiere season has left fans anxious for two years—spliced by two seasons of Daryl Dixon and the strongest post-TWD spin-off thus far, The Ones Who Live—so seeing this concrete step towards Dead City Season 2’s release is exciting for those craving more Maggie, Nega, New York City post-apocalyptic power struggles, and an upgraded Lucille.

Premiering on May 4th, 2025, on AMC and AMC+, Dead City started strong by exploring all the kinds of spaces—both physical and social—a post-apocalyptic New York has and how both Maggie and Negan engage with the new setting. From skyscraper-hurtling walkers smashing into passersby below, Maggie and Negan’s newest (if repetitive) spat in their long-running, Glenn-is-still-dead feud, to a broader look into the lawless power structures that took NYC’s remnants in, Dead City was a strong start to The Walking Dead‘s post-finale spin-off era that has much potential for a stronger Season 2. Starring returning TWD icons such as Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan), her son Hershel (Logan Kim), and Negan Smith (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the series introduced an intriguing backstory to Negan’s time before his original franchise introduction and a plethora of new characters. The Croat, Negan’s ex-zombie-power partner, New York overlord-type the Dama (Lisa Emery), and criminal bounty hunter Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) are just some of Season 1’s returning characters who co-star alongside new faces such as Bruegel (Kim Coates).

Related

From Fear The Walking Dead to Dead City: How To Watch Every Walking Dead Show In Chronological Order

An in-depth guide for chronologically viewing all 27 seasons of AMC’s The Walking Dead franchise alongside the characters.

The trailer, shown via The Walking Dead‘s official YouTube and Instagram, reveals much about the show’s narrative. First, Negan and Maggie are at it again. Having initially teamed up to take down the Croat and save Hershel, Maggie left the city for the New York suburbs, and Negan stayed, switching back to his old roots and seeking control of the city with the Croat and Dama’s help. Now, seemingly in complete cahoots with New York’s thuggish rulers, Negan’s back to his Season 7 prime: a new Lucille barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, which can now electrocute anyone who comes into contact at varying levels, is in full swing as he makes deals with old and new faces to gain control of Manhattan.

As Perlie alerts Maggie to Negan’s current endeavors—insisting that they must go back to “bring Manhattan back”—Maggie lectures Hershel about why she agrees and what they must remember about themselves in the face of possible grueling choices the pair may face upon return. Along with sweeping city shots, a chiller opening covered by Rosemary Clooney’s suave song “Manhattan,” and arena-walker fights reminiscent of the mutated ones thrown at Daryl Dixon in his titular spin-off, the trailer for Dead City Season 2 promises blood, terror, tears, and “a bit of a shock,” as Negan says and will inevitably say more before electrocuting someone.

Of the two ongoing The Walking Dead spin-offs, Dead City has been better received by critics and fans, holding more potential for future stories. While Daryl Dixon Season 1 has a moderate Rotten Tomatoes score, Season 2 or The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol was less well-received, especially by audiences. While Dead City Season 1 was no match for TWD Universe’s most well-received season in years in Rick and Michonne’s The Ones Who Live spin-off, it holds a much warmer RT score than both seasons of Daryl Dixon, many of The Walking Dead‘s middle seasons and a countless amount of seasons from spin-offs like Fear the Walking Dead and TWD: World Beyond because of solid world-building, intriguing character development, and enticing new faces.

So long as Dead City remains focused on the toxic, ever-changing Maggie-Hershel dynamic, New York City streets, and a struggle for undead power driven by Negan’s old-school lust for it, this spin-off could prove itself to be as entertaining and symbolic as The Walking Dead in its prime early seasons, if not more so. With a little over a month-and-a-half left to wait for Dead City‘s anticipated release, fans and curious TV enthusiasts will crave more after seeing this trailer.

The Walking Dead

Release Date

2010 – 2022

Network

AMC

Showrunner

Frank Darabont, Angela Kang, Scott M. Gimple, Glen Mazzara

• 
• 

•