The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 adds a bunch of new cast members – and Guillermo del Toro-loving horror fans will already be familiar with one

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has announced a whole bunch of new cast members ahead of season 3.

Alexandra Masangkay, Hugo Arbues, Candela Saitta, Óscar Jaenada, and Eduardo Noriega have joined Melissa McBride and Norman Reedus in the zombie spin-off, which is currently filming its third chapter in Madrid. AMC confirmed the news via the show's official social media accounts.

Genre fans will likely be familiar with the latter two, with Jaenada having appeared in the likes of Chaos Walking and The Shallows and Noriega having played Jacinto in Guillermo del Toro's revered 2001 horror The Devil's Backbone.

Set to return on September 29 in the US, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon's second season, which is officially subtitled The Book of Carol, will chart the titular besties efforts to get back to reunite with one another after Daryl found himself washed-up in Marseille. While season 2 will continue to be set in France, it was revealed at this year's San Diego Comic-Con that the events of season 3 will take place in Spain.

Given the change of scenery, it's uncertain whether Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) and Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) will cross the border alongside Daryl. It's hard to imagine why they'd stay behind, though, given showrunner David Zabel's recent comments about Daryl's relationship with the former nun. 

"There are moments of friction, but there are obviously moments of mutual interest, and more than friendship that seems to be developing," Zabel told SFX magazine. "We wanted to draw a mature, adult relationship between a man and a woman and see where it went. Let's just put these two characters, who are very different in very interesting, intriguing ways, force them together by the story facts, and then see what happens. 

"What happened in season one was that you could see a connection forming, for sure," he says. "We didn't manufacture that but we left room for it. A lot of season two is about the development of that and where that relationship goes, and that little surrogate family of Isabelle, Daryl and Laurent."

Before he'll be seen in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3, Jaenada is set to appear in The Platform 2, the follow-up to Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's acclaimed dystopian thriller of the same name. Netflix unveiled the sequel's first trailer back in July, ahead of its October release.

For more on The Walking Dead universe, check out our handy guide on how to watch The Walking Dead franchise in order, or have a look at our list of the most exciting new TV shows heading our way.