The Walking Dead’s Latest Show Rips Off Fan-Favorite Hit Series
Pop quiz, hotshot: what if your ailing franchise finally got a shot of new life, but everyone knows it’s because you ripped off a better show? That’s what we can only imagine that the producers of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon are feeling right now. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show has received very strong reviews, but critics just can’t stop comparing it to the hit Pedro Pascal show The Last of Us.
Critics give The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon high marks, but draw a lot of comparisons to The Last of Us.
In many ways, the producers of this AMC spinoff were facing a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation that might seem right at home in the apocalyptic landscape of The Walking Dead. After season 7, the show bled viewers quicker than walkers bleed humans, and producers knew they had to change up the formula for their Daryl Dixon spinoff if they wanted to attract new fans and bring back old ones.
Across its six episodes, the latest spinoff successfully injects new life into the shambling franchise, but it rather explicitly invites comparisons to other hit apocalyptic stories like The Last of Us.
You may already know the main conceit of the new show: Daryl Dixon finds himself on the shores of a zombified France and must navigate a new world full of the same old dangers as well as a few new threats.
Most shockingly, this spinoff has critics excited for the future of The Walking Dead franchise, which is something that would have seemed unthinkable only a year ago.
However, the main reason for the comparisons to The Last of Us is something that AMC has been understandably hesitant to advertise: the primary plot involves Dixon helping transport a young girl with the potential to save all of humanity across a landscape filled with dangers both living and dead.
At first glance, it’s easy to accuse AMC of seeing the success of The Last of Us and decided to copy that formula for the Daryl Dixon spinoff. According to producer Greg Nicotero, though, that’s not the case.
He says he got understandably nervous when he watched the first episode of The Last of Us because he realized the plot was so similar to the plot of his new spinoff. But because they “were already deep into production” when The Last of Us came out, there was no way for AMC to reverse course on the main plot of the new series.
Daryl Dixon producer Greg Nicotero says the show was too deep into production to reverse course when he learned about the similarities to The Last of Us.
The good news is that if you’ll probable be able to get over how much The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon reminds you of The Last of Us, because reports say the show is actually really good. It’s been highly reviewed, and critics have praised it for its gorgeous cinematography, killer creativity, and world-class world-building.
Most shockingly, this spinoff has critics excited for the future of The Walking Dead franchise, which is something that would have seemed unthinkable only a year ago.
While we can understand the comparisons to The Last of Us, the truth is that we’re pretty hyped to check out The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon when it premieres on AMC on September 10. The combination of a fan-favorite character with a new setting and new series direction looks to be a winning formula. If that formula happens to have a heavy sprinkling of The Last of Us, well… AMC could certainly do worse than ripping off one of the best shows ever created.
