An alternate-reality episode is only one of the surprises, and we’ve got your premiere date as well.

The Walking Dead: Dead City is making a massive change for Maggie and Negan in season 3 (exclusive)

An alternate-reality episode is only one of the surprises, and we've got your premiere date as well.

By Dalton Ross

Dalton Ross is a writer and editor with over 25 years experience covering TV and the entertainment industry. *Survivor* is kind of his thing.

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May 15, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

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Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan on 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' season 3. Credit:

Robert Clark/AMC

- We've got your exclusive first look at season 3 of *The Walking Dead: Dead City *and can exclusively reveal the show's premiere date.

- There is going to be a big change to the Maggie-and-Negan relationship moving forward.

- Prepare yourself for an alternate-reality episode during the season.

Something is very, very off. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan are hanging out on the corner of Park Avenue and 68th street in New York City on a nippy January afternoon. The duo are in the midst of shooting some pick-up exterior scenes for their Big Apple-set zombie series, *Dead City*, which does the majority of its filming in Boston.

But while we’re quite used to seeing the characters of Negan and Maggie in New York at this point, something about this particular scene still feels odd. Why is Morgan’s Negan — clad in black from beanie-wearing head to boot-wearing toe — also sporting an ankle monitor? How come the streets seem so clean? Why is that random couple who look like they stepped out of an Old Navy catalog just strolling down the street all nonchalant? AND WHERE ARE ALL THE ZOMBIES?!?

This is your first clue that things are changing up quite a bit for season 3 of *The Walking Dead** *spinoff — which ** can exclusively report premieres July 26 on AMC and AMC+ — with the pair filming an entire alternate reality episode taking place in a very different looking New York City. But that’s not your only hint. Like, what’s up with all those people standing around eating chili?

*Ohhhhhhhh*, turns out that’s just craft services. But the spicy stew has definitely gotten Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s attention, with the actor inquiring about obtaining a bowl to chew on between takes.

“What kind?” inquires a crew member.

“Real chili!” Morgan responds. “Beef chili. None of this chicken chili crap.”

“You want the works?” asks a production assistant.

“Give me the works.”

Observing the entire interaction, Lauren Cohan suddenly speaks up. “Me too!” she chimes in, following her costar’s lead.

It seems Negan and Maggie are finally on the same page. And not just when it comes to culinary craft service delights. Because *The Walking Dead* is going to do something it has never attempted before on season 3 of *Dead City*: Negan and Maggie are finally… yes… allies.

Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee and Aimee Garcia as Renata on 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' season 3.

Robert Clark/AMC

Mind you, this is not another temporary or forced alliance. Neither is working with the other under duress. There is no threat that at any time one may stab the other in the back — either metaphorically, or like at the end of last season, *literally*, as Maggie plunged a blade into Negan. Instead, the pair has finally made the leap from dysfunctional to dynamic duo. And if audiences are happy to see that evolution after years (and multiple shows) of the two working together only reluctantly, it’s nothing compared to the actors playing them.

“We needed this relationship to move on between Maggie and Negan,” says Morgan. “And I was desperate for it. Negan kept doing things like saving her, saving her kid, and yet she just hated me. I just think we all were ready to move on. It's not just gonna be, ‘I'm gonna kill you when I get the chance,’ you know?”

Now, it appears the only thing Maggie will be threatening to kill Negan with is… kindness? “It’s the biggest turning over of a new leaf for Maggie and Negan that there's ever been,” says Cohan. “Because they're gonna work together. It's been sort of hinted at, strived for, maybe attempted, and this is the first time it's legitimately happening.”

And that new approach means an entirely new dynamic for a relationship that has often felt stuck in place ever since Negan put Maggie’s husband on the receiving end of a baseball bat 10 years ago. It also means we are going to get an entirely new Maggie — one who is not solely focused on trauma and revenge.

“If I'm not gonna kill him, I gotta live with him and I have to see him for who he really is,” Cohan says. "And that involves a lot of healing for both their relationship and for her personally. The thing that's different this year is her vulnerability of saying, ‘I need your help.’ And that's something she's never tried with him. She's coerced him and manipulated him into helping her, and he's done it either knowingly or unknowingly to repay a debt, but this is the first time that she's led with more openness with him.”

That fresh take was something executive producers Cohan, Morgan, and Scott M. Gimple all knew they wanted for season 3. And that fresh take also meant a fresh pair of eyes to oversee it all.

“Jeff, Scott, and myself were all speaking about our hopes for season 3,” says Cohan. "We knew we wanted Maggie and Negan to be together. We knew we wanted to bury the hatchet. And then Seth came in with this storyline that gave them something bigger to work towards to bury that hatchet.”

The Seth in question refers to new showrunner Seth Hoffman, who returns to the franchise he wrote for during seasons 4 through 6 of the original *Walking Dead*, and was tasked here with bringing the two uneasy onscreen partners into alignment. “Maggie and Negan understandably have been like this for a very, very long time” Hoffman says. “And I think we were all excited to imagine what could it possibly look like for these two characters to genuinely be working together for a common goal.”

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But what exactly *is* that common goal? While previous foes such as the Dama (Lisa Emery), the Croat (Željko Ivanek), and New Babylon are still out there when season 3 begins — the show picks up pretty much immediately after the events of season 2 — the main challenge moving forward may not be in overcoming a villain with a catchy nickname.

“We’ve seen the Governor, Negan himself, the Croat, and the Dama,” notes Hoffman, “but there’s not a specific big bad this season. It's really all about wanting to build this impossible thing, daring to have this leap of faith, and once we take this leap of faith, how do we make sure that this amazing vision that we have comes to fruition?”

That vision will be intertwined with a new group the duo encounter led by a woman named Renata (Aimee Garcia). “They are like a big extended family with dozens of people who survived together over the core of the apocalypse,” Hoffman explains. “They have a history with the Croat, and Renata is the leader and matriarch of the family.”

While Maggie may find herself attracted to what Renata has built, her son Hershel (Logan Kim) will find a kinship with Renata’s brother Luis (Raúl Castillo) — a kinship that would make Hershel’s namesake proud. “Luis is a doctor,” Hoffman reveals. “So he is a critical resource there, and Hershel realizes that he — following in his grandfather’s footsteps — wants to go into medicine. So Luis has a really important mentor role to play with Hershel.”

Logan Kim as Hershel and Raúl Castillo as Luis on 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' season 3.

Robert Clark/AMC

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Negan will make his own much darker connection with a newcomer in the form of Jimmi Simpson’s Dillard. “Dillard is a character who ingeniously found a way to survive by himself,” Hoffman teases. “But there's a psychological cost to having been by yourself for all those years. Renata is a flip side to Maggie and Dillard is a flip side to Negan.”

What does that mean exactly for our anti-hero turned potential hero? “Negan at the beginning of this season is sort of at a crossroads where he kind of feels like people are terrible,” Hoffman says. “He wants to leave everybody and go be a hermit. And Dillard is in a lot of ways what happens if you reject people. Dillard and Negan have a really compelling relationship.”

Cohan goes one step beyond that. “Dillard's character is like a revelation” says the actress. “He's one of my favorite characters in all *The Walking Dead*. Period. Full stop.”

It was also a reunion of sorts for Morgan and Simpson, who guest-starred together on an episode of Lifetime cop series *The Division* back in 2002. “I played a priest and he was my altar boy,” laughs Morgan, who also appreciated how much room his new showrunner afforded the two friends to work together. “Seth gave us a lot of leeway to play with the script and I love working like that. So this year has really reinvigorated my whole f---ing love of the game.”

He’s not the only one. “I watched these first two episodes, and I feel so hopeful about the world, when I watch them,” says an emotional Cohan, starting to tear up. “Even though TV is more hopeful than the world sometimes. But I just felt so encouraged to put that message out there. And I felt that way when the writers broke season 3. It just gave me chills. It made me really happy, and I want people to come into our living room of *The Walking Dead* and have that experience.”

Seeing Maggie go from perpetually grim to an occasional grin also brought joy to her costar. “There's a scene in the first episode this year,” recalls Morgan, “where I’m like, ‘F---, it's the first time I've ever seen you smile.’ And it's true! It was the first time that we had a scene that didn't end with her threatening my life or stabbing me or something. It was a pleasant change.”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan and Jimmi Simpson as Dillard on 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' season 3.

Robert Clark/AMC

Back on the corner of Park Avenue and 68th street, the actors are certainly having fun. It seems the winter chill is wreaking havoc on a close-up shot of Negan listening to Maggie. “I’m all snotty,” Morgan laughs after director Lauren Wolkstein yells cut. “I got snot running down my face. She has to look at it dripping down into my mustache. I don’t know how she was able to hit her lines!”

Cohan cracks up as Morgan wipes away the nasal mucus. “Not my best look,” he confirms.

While *Dead City* is certainly not becoming a comedy, it seems there is also now room for there to finally be lighter moments between these characters that first met under such horrific circumstances.

“It was just great to be able to have scenes with Lauren that felt different,” says Morgan. “There are these moments of levity and moments of humor where they come off almost as friends,” says Morgan. “They're damn near friendly! There's a spark there.”

The actor pauses, as if he can hear the internet losing its collective mind at the possible unsaid implication. “And I *don't* mean a romantic spark.”

Season 4, anyone?

- The Walking Dead Fandom

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