Norman Reedus

This spinoff has quite a cast.

But new spinoffs are coming...

It is a confusing time to follow The Walking Dead. A few major upsets had fans wondering if Season 9 might break from the comic entirely, but first photos from the Georgia set tease a strange new (albeit familiar) look for the AMC zombie drama. Is that time-jump happening after all?

Soft ratings on The Walking Dead Season 8 have raised questions of the series longevity, and we at last have an answer. The flagship AMC drama will return for a ninth season with (most of) its cast intact, though Angela Yang will take over for Scott Gimple as showrunner.

Seeing as we must have The Walking Dead all year-round, AMC isn’t even waiting for Comic-Con’s Season 8 Trailer to drop the first look. See Daryl and Carol back to their old selves in a first photo, while bosses tease that Season 8 will feature more crossover than ever.

Let’s be real; Boondock Saints fans were never so enamored of the sequel, and recent reports of a fan-funded prequel series raised more eyebrows than capital. Writer-director Troy Duffy at least hoped a TV series could pave the way for stars Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery to complete a film trilogy, but the real-life MacManus brothers now step up to distance themselves from the property.

The Boondock Saints moved a few inches (and a few hundred dollars) closer to resurrection with news of a fan-funded Origins TV series, though it seemed questionable stars Norman Reedus or Sean Patrick Flanery would participate. Now, The Boondock Saints: Origins addresses whether the original stars have any involvement, including on a film sequel.

The Walking Dead isn’t known for elaborate fan-sleuthing (save a dumpster-dive or two), thought it seemed impossibly coincidental that placement of a Morse Code chart and an unusual Rick-Daryl interaction weren’t intentional this past week. Well, sorry to burst your Reddit bubble, but showrunner Scott Gimple says it might just have been a sunny day.

We live in an age of fan-theories, where Westworld twists might be unlocked on Reddit after one episode, though as The Walking Dead proved with #DumpsterGate last year, it isn’t always worth the wait. Some clever fans have observed at least one background detail that might put this past Sunday’s “Service” into perspective, however, and tease Rick’s plan to strike back.

Any series that traffics in severed heads long enough will invariably get creative with their molds, as did a recent Walking Dead episode that saw Johnny Depp’s face making an unexpected cameo. Well, purveyor of all weird memorabilia, Norman Reedus evidently kept the celebrity trophy for himself.