At NYCC 2025, the creative team reveals how the series channels old-school adventure with European flair
Summary
– Season 3 draws heavy inspiration from classic Spaghetti Westerns and historical Spanish settings
– Greg Nicotero and Norman Reedus highlight a leper colony episode as the show’s defining moment
– Themes of chaos, survival, and discovery drive the show’s European frontier tone
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 3, has taken fans deeper into geographically and creatively uncharted territory. During New York Comic Con 2025, Norman Reedus, Greg Nicotero, and the series producers revealed how the European setting, tone, and visual language have transformed the spinoff into something that feels more like a Western epic than a traditional zombie drama.
Filming across Spain and France allowed the team to integrate real history into the story. Locations like Belchite, which was bombed during the Spanish Civil War, became a living backdrop, influencing the narrative and tone. The creative team intentionally drew on classic Spaghetti Western influences such as vast landscapes, moral tension, and frontier grit to build a lawless, haunting, and new world.
One standout example discussed at NYCC was the now-acclaimed leper colony episode, which the producers described as the series’s most ambitious and emotionally resonant chapter. “That episode embodies everything the Daryl Dixon series wanted to be,” said one producer. “It’s about finding humanity in strange places, with Daryl and Carol affecting the people they meet before moving on.” Greg Nicotero’s effects team delivered one of their finest achievements, blending atmosphere and horror seamlessly.
The team also revealed how the season’s visual storytelling merges Western iconography with post-apocalyptic chaos. The train sequence, featuring walkers pulling a locomotive through the desert, was highlighted as a symbolic fusion of both genres: Mad Max and Sergio Leone. “There’s always a train in a Western,” Nicotero said. “So we asked, what if walkers were pulling it?”
Guest star Stephen Merchant also drew praise for his one-episode appearance, with the creators admitting they wished he could have stayed longer. His character’s dynamic with Daryl and Carol became an unexpected emotional highlight.
As the cast and crew reflected, Daryl Dixon’s European journey has become an exploration of isolation, redemption, and survival that feels as timeless as any Western. “It’s wild, chaotic, and human,” Reedus said. “That’s exactly what we wanted.”
