Isle Of The Dead Plot – The Maggie And Negan Walking Dead Spinoff – We’ve Got Theories

Early seasons of The Walking Dead lived on the fear that your favorite character could die. T-Dog and Glenn fans know this pain well. As the series grew, some characters developed temporary or permanent plot armor, but the showrunners still had to keep the fear. So far, that has meant keeping a few fan favorites breathing, at least until the finale when anything could happen. Except anything can’t happen. AMC just announced another TWD spinoff with Negan and Maggie called Isle of the Dead. Beyond confirming that Maggie and Negan survive, the conclusion of The Walking Dead and plot of Isle of the Dead are still relatively up in the air. We’re going to take a second and break down what we think will happen in Isle of the Dead, how it will affect Maggie and Negan’s development, and how the series finale of TWD will take us there.

Image via AMC

How Maggie and Negan Spinoff TWD 

Negan is one of the most divisive characters in The Walking Dead. One one hand, he slaughtered some of the best characters in the show, tortured Deryl, and coerced a bunch of women into forming a literal harem for him. On the other hand he had this cool jacket. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan puts on some flawless cult leader charisma that makes mopey old-Negan seem sympathetic.

Maggie is a different sort of fan favorite. She’s been with the series since season 2 and has grown a ton. She’s passed through all the zombie apocalypse developmental stages. She started as a naïve farmer, became a rad zombie slaughter machine with riot gear, vengeful partner, leader, then vengeful leader. You love to see it. Ever since Negan hit a home run with Glenn’s amygdala, her arc has been considerably darker. When Lauren Cohan came back to the series after a break, one of the presiding theories was that she was going to murder Negan, probably because of all those times she said she was going to murder Negan. 

Season 11 began, and now we’re seeing TWD is giving Maggie and Negan a lot of time together before the spinoff. Negan is desperately trying to show Maggie he feels bad for slaughtering her husband, and Maggie has benevolently not beaten him to death with a crowbar. For a while, it was up in the air whether Maggie would close out her arc by killing Negan after he finally redeemed himself, but we have an answer to that question now. Maggie and Negan will leave Walking Dead for Isle of the Dead, so we know at the very least they’ll both live through the end of the series. 

What Will Isle of the Dead be About?

This latest spinoff will see Maggie and Negan teaming up in Manhattan. We’re going to get some real messed up big city vibes, and even the cast is excited about the story and setting. Why Maggie and Negan are on a friendship adventure to the Big Apple is unclear, but there’s evidence to suggest it has a lot to do with the larger conflict that we’ll see more of in the Rick movies. AMC released a cryptic image teasing Isle of the Dead, and it had some plot implications about The Walking Dead finale. 

Image via AMC

 

So the big ol’ doors have the iconic “Don’t Dead Open Inside” “Don’t Open Dead Inside” line on them. While that could just be a tongue-in-cheek way of saying the city is messy with walkers, there’s only one character that line implies. And though it’s a bit of a reach again, there’s also the sign that says “Lincoln Tunnel,” a very real tunnel that they definitely did not have to mention in the promo art. On their own, both of these things could be a coincidence, but together they seem like a clear implication. 

Some of the other painted lines also connect to individual characters, maybe implying they’ll appear or just be mentioned. First, “Save us” is even written in the style of “Saviors Save Us” that we see in season 9. We know Negan’s in this thing, but that’s kind of a key indicating the lines have a connection to people making an appearance. “It comes for us all” and “Away with you” both respectively relate to Daryl and Morgan, one who saw it painted on a subway wall and the other who wrote it on a bunch of rocks and walls while he was in crazy murder mode. 

Image via AMC

Why Is This a Maggie And Negan Spinoff of TWD?

Maggie and Negan are similar in a few important ways. First, they’re united by a shared horrific event, that time Negan murdered the best character in the show. They are also both connected to Rick through his goal for the new society. Rick wanted to show that they didn’t have to kill their enemies, and Maggie really wanted to kill Negan. If these two are setting out on a journey together, and it goes in the begrudging-friendship direction AMC is leading their characters, than it would be a really good ending for both of them to meet back up with Rick and show that he wasn’t wrong to believe in Carl’s dream of peace. 

Image via AMC

The reason Negan and Maggie go to New York hasn’t been revealed, but we do have some thoughts on that too. They’re both some of the most seasoned fighters and leaders on the show right now. If there was something important that needed doing, they’re a sensible pair, especially if it’s somewhere dangerous that’s teeming with zombies and big city survivors. Maggie’s got a death wish and Negan seems like he wants to die saving Maggie, it’s not a stretch to see them both volunteering as tribute. 

Our prediction is that this is the first of new The Walking Dead properties that will feature a sort of All-Stars of the series returning for one greater mission. Maybe not to save the world, but at least to either fight some of the big evil powers or find a cure for the living afflicted. Carol and Daryl, now Maggie and Negan, some of the most popular characters are getting down to business. So, it’s likely the plot of The Walking Dead: Isle of the Dead will serve franchise and worldbuilding by bringing in guest stars. 

 Isle of the Dead is slated to premiere sometime in 2023

What are your predictions for the plot of Isle of the Dead or the series finale of The Walking Dead? Tell us in the comments! And be sure to check out our other post with even more Walking Dead rumors about Rick and the movies!

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Jessica Kanzler is a freelance writer and editor who lives with her wife and cats. Jessica has bad taste in tv and an MA in Rhetoric, Writing, and Digital Media studies. Talk to her about Frasier on Twitter @Jessicaakanzler