When you're 15 years into a franchise, it makes sense to start looking for unusual inspirations to keep things exciting for longtime fans. Ahead of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3's UK release date, showrunner David Zabel and director Daniel Percival have teased that everything from Clint Eastwood films to the history of the Spanish monarchy influenced the horror show's latest chapter.
"I grew up on the spaghetti westerns, and the Man with No Name movies that Sergio Leone did, and some other directors too, were always in my brain," Zabel tells GamesRadar+. "Once I knew we were going to be in the places where they filmed a lot of those, I thought, 'Let's lean into that even more.' And the story that we were coming up with lent itself to that kind of narrative, too – the sort of 'strangers in town' thing.
"For us as writers, it was more looking at the history of the culture and the government of Spain," he adds. "Our stories mostly came from saying, like, 'Well, how can we do something with the history of the Spanish monarchy? How can we do something that references the Civil War? How can we talk about the Basque separatist movement?' How would the past manifest itself in the present?"
The new installment, which premiered in the US back in September, sees Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) find themselves in Spain, after a failed attempt to sail back to the US from England. There, they stumble across a couple of young survivors who've recently fled their community, Solaz del Mar, to avoid being split up by its archaic customs.
With Carol severely injured, they convince the reluctant lovers to take them back to Solaz del Mar, promising to help them escape again once she's fighting fit. A vow that proves difficult when the newcomers' unapproved arrival stokes up drama inside the medieval city's guarded walls.
"We create mood boards for each new season to give all the departments a guide, and spaghetti westerns were definitely a big thing here," says Percival. "Sergio Leone, and beyond that, to John Ford and even David Lean and seeing how filmmakers in the past have set characters within these hostile landscapes. Then more recent films like The Revenant and, you know, Mexican-made westerns, if you like, which is really where a lot of filmmakers are very skillful at creating a very intimate environment in a very wide, open landscape."
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 airs every Sunday on AMC and AMC+ in the US. It premieres on Sky/NOW in the UK on October 24. For more, check out our guide on how to watch The Walking Dead in order and The Walking Dead recap.
