‘Walking Dead’s Melissa McBride Exits Spinoff Series

Melissa McBride, who has starred as Carol in The Walking Dead since the series launch, will not be part of a planned untitled spinoff slated for 2023. The so-called Carol-Daryl spinoff was to be focused on her and Norman Reedus’ TWD characters.

“Melissa McBride has given life to one of the most interesting, real, human and popular characters in The Walking Dead Universe. Unfortunately, she is no longer able to participate in the previously announced spin-off focused on the Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier characters, which will be set and filmed in Europe this summer and premiere next year. Relocating to Europe became logistically untenable for Melissa at this time. We know fans will be disappointed by this news, but The Walking Dead Universe continues to grow and expand in interesting ways and we very much hope to see Carol again in the near future,” AMC said in a statement Wednesday.

Burying the duel lede a bit, AMC’s revelation that the spinoff will film in Europe opens up all new possibilities to the Reedus-led series. While it is unclear at this juncture if the show itself will be set on the other side of the Atlantic, the fact that the production is leaving behind TWD’s longtime homebase of Georgia hints at a very different landscape, literally and figuratively.

The Carol-Daryl spinoff is among several Walking Dead series that are currently in the works, including a New York City-set spinoff revolving around Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan’s characters, Negan and Maggie, as well as anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead. Fear The Walking Dead kicked off the second part of its seventh season on April 17.

Mothership The Walking Dead is recently wrapped up the second part of it’s supersized eleventh and final season. The final eight episodes of the zombie apocalypse show based on Robert Kirkman’s comics are set to debut later this year.