Norman Reedus Wants To “Keep Reinventing” The ‘Walking Dead’ Franchise As Daryl Dixon

Nearly 15 years into the zombie apocalypse, Norman Reedus still has a few more left in him.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon star teased that he could continue to play his titular zombie-killing biker for “maybe six or seven more years” as he prepares for Season 2 to premiere September 29 on AMC.

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“The Daryl Dixon spin-off has given me an opportunity to take the show in a direction that’s different to the original show,” he told Mr. Feelgood. “I didn’t want to make the same show again in a different location. I wanted to reinvent it. And they let me, with the other like-minded people involved, invent something new. So it feels fresh to me. It’s in a different language. It’s shot a different way. It’s not really about zombies, and who’s going to get bit this week, it’s completely different. So as long as I keep reinventing it, it’s fun.”

In the spin-off — which premiered last September — Daryl washes up on a beach in France, the origin of the zombie virus, and struggles to piece together how he got there and find a way home.

“We went to Paris, and we didn’t want to make an American show and drop it in a European country, not have it reflect anything of the place that we were filming it at,” explained Reedus. “So we wanted the French people to look at it and feel like it was their show, too. And it worked. French people love the show. So I’m excited for them to see season two.”

After the original concept of the spin-off was to focus on Daryl and fellow survivor Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), entitled The Walking Dead: Daryl & Carol, McBride had scheduling conflicts with filming on the first season. Having returned in the season finale, the upcoming season will be titled The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol.

In the finale, Daryl made the decision to stay in France while Carol continued searching the US for her friend, with whom she lost contact.

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