Daryl's 'The Walking Dead' spin-off is quickly turning into a 'The Last of Us' rip-off
Daryl's "The Walking Dead" spin-off introduced a kid who may be immune to the zombie apocalypse.
As Daryl's tasked with delivering the boy across France, the show reeks of similarities to "The Last of Us."
The boy's birth is similar to Ellie's in "TLOU," which gave her immunity from a widespread infection.
Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon."
Two episodes in and AMC's big Daryl Dixon "The Walking Dead" spin-off is starting to feel a lot like a "The Last of Us" rip-off.
On the show's pilot episode, the stoic, rough-around-the-edges loner Daryl (Norman Reedus) gets tasked with transporting a young boy, Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), to a Buddhist monk in Paris in exchange for help getting back to America. (Here, Daryl winds up in France for yet unexplained reasons).
The show's second episode reveals Laurent was born after his mother died and reanimated into one of the undead.
As a result, he's believed to be a messiah who will "lead the revival of humanity."
If that plot sounds familiar, it's because it's basically ripped right from "The Last of Us" video game, which HBO adapted into an immensely successful hit series earlier this year.
Both the game and show follow a real-life cordyceps fungus which has evolved to hijack and zombify humans, leading to the downfall of humanity.
On the show's season one finale, a flashback shows a woman giving birth to Ellie (Bella Ramsey), moments after getting bit and becoming infected. As a result, Ellie is immune to the fungus' effects due to cordyceps that have grown inside of her since birth.
Ellie is presented as a hope for humanity. Over the course of the show's first season, a rugged loner, Joel (Pedro Pascal), is tasked with delivering Ellie safely to doctors across the country to find a cure.
Currently, the shows contain two major differences. Ellie was born before her mother died as opposed to Laurent who was cut out of his mother's womb after her zombification.
Additionally, "TWD: Daryl Dixon" hasn't provided concrete evidence that Laurent is immune to the zombie virus.
Unlike Ellie, he doesn't exhibit any bites. Laurent's aunt simply refers to him as "special." Does that mean he's immune to the zombie infection? Maybe. Maybe not.
Knowing the "TWD" universe, which loves to tease its fans with interesting concepts, we'll likely never find out.
'TWD: Daryl Dixon' feels like a cheap 'TLOU' imitation
As a longtime "TWD" viewer, this is immensely frustrating.
While it's cool that we may finally see a potential cure to the zombie virus explored, "The Walking Dead," which debuted in 2010, had multiple chances to capitalize on this exact plot line years before "The Last of Us" video game's release in 2013 with a character fans cared about.
Rick Grimes' daughter, Judith, was born into the apocalypse on season three in 2012. There were times on the show's final season when I thought the show would reveal Judith — who has served as a beacon of hope during the apocalypse — as being the cure because of the circumstances around her early birth.
More recently, it seemed like the spin-off series "Fear the Walking Dead" may reveal that another beloved character, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), may hold the key to a zombie cure as she continued to live while fighting off symptoms associated with becoming a walker.
Instead, the actor departed the series with her story left open-ended.
"TWD: Daryl Dixon" executive producer Greg Nicotero admitted to Entertainment Weekly that he expressed concern about similarities between the two shows after watching "The Last of Us" pilot, but said they "were already deep into production when 'The Last Of Us' came out."
It's not like the team can claim they were unaware of its content. In 2020, "TWD" chief Scott M. Gimple spoke to Insider about his love for the "TLOU" game.
Seeing a similar story play out 13 years and five spin-offs into "The Walking Dead" universe with a new, random character not only rings hollow, but it feels stale and reeks of desperation to stay relevant.
Perhaps they should've let the show die with its series finale in 2022. It feels like they're running out of original ideas.
Read the original article on Insider