NEW SPINOFF!

THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY

Sundays beginning June 18 on AMC NEW SERIES!

When fans said goodbye to the 12-year, 11-season run of The Walking Dead back in November, they knew they wouldn’t have to wait long to see some of their favorite characters return in a new brutal, postapocalyptic adventure. And the series’ most unlikely pairing — Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) — are the subjects of AMC’s new Dead City. The two justifiably have been at war with one another for most of the series, as Maggie’s beloved husband Glenn died from Negan bludgeoning him with his infamous barbed-wire bat in what was one of the series’ most appalling and heartbreaking deaths. While you would have never imagined that this character could be redeemable, Negan did begin to atone for his sins and made some significant sacrifices that allowed for him to survive (and occasionally that self-serving sarcasm we came to love did come through). Now the two head to Manhattan, which has long been cut off from the mainland, where they see the dead being used as weapons, and they desperately search for Maggie’s son Hershel. Here Cohan tells us what we can expect.

How much of a time gap is it since we last left Maggie and Negan? And what’s New York like?

Lauren Cohan: It’s covered in zombies. We haven’t exactly pinpointed it, but I would say it’s a few years into the future.

Where do we pick up with Maggie? Where are you?

Maggie’s a few years into the future and in a place that maybe she’d hoped to move on from or be in a different place in her life, but that’s not the case. She’s searching for her son and needs the help of Negan on this mission, and it’s somebody that she never thought she’d have to see again, let alone deal with all the emotions that they bring up.

When we last left you two, Maggie said she didn’t want to hate Negan anymore. How’s that working out?

It’s a great plan, and it’s a great hope that she has to be able to somehow put something to rest so that she can move on and not be consumed by the rage. But I think the combination of not having processed any of the grief really and going away from the source of the pain hasn’t made her process it. And it’s only by being forced back into it that we see that she’s reverted a little bit. He’s reverted a little bit, and they both have been sent on a slingshot, pulled back only to be thrust forward into crazy extremes of this raw circumstance. So it’s really challenging. It’s a really conflicted journey.

What other demons is Maggie challenged with?

I think, honestly, it’s so difficult to fathom the level of pain and loneliness and the parts of self that are just shut down in order to live this life. We’re talking about someone 15 years into the apocalypse. ... The most flavorful part of this whole story is the complexity of human emotion and this kaleidoscope of pain and tension and need and unwillingness, and who can you trust and where can you turn and how do you keep going?

What’s the New York zombie scene look like?

The New York scene for us is different. We meet different people. We meet people who have learned to survive. There’s a sense of the New York spirit inserted into an apocalypse, which I think everybody would be excited to see that cocktail. And we get to show the people that are still living, and we get to show the sea of the dead and then we’re stuck on this island.

Once you get on, you can’t get off. And that’s something that Maggie and Negan don’t know going in. And it’s entering, really entering, the dark night of the soul — both on the island and in ourselves.

Who’s this new character

Marshal Perlie Armstrong (played by Gaius Charles), and who should we be worried about?

We should be worried about him; he’s not our biggest bad in the show, but he has a drive that is unstoppable and that’s what makes him so threatening. ... I think so many characters who have to follow a rule of law to the letter, it’s often protecting the great vulnerability within them. And that’s something that definitely exists for Perlie. ... I find myself just enjoying Gaius and Željko Ivanek [who plays The Croat] and watching them, and just pinching myself at the luck of this.

And how bad is The Croat?

The Croat is really a new level of sinister. I don’t want to say too much about how he came to be who he is, because that’s a part of the story, but you think you’ve seen all kinds of evil represented in the world and sinister things, and obviously our king sinister, Negan. And then you see this whole new level of sport in evil that somebody has, and yet also these vulnerable, heartbreaking colors. And that’s what’s been so exciting about the show, is nobody conforms to any cut-and-dried sort of label.

So if we thought Negan or The Governor was a 10, how is he? Remember in Spinal Tap when they want the amp to go to 11? People may not know this reference, but The Croat is definitely, he’s definitely beyond 11 in what he represents and sort of forces.

Can you see the series going beyond the initial six episodes?

I think this could at least be five seasons. There’s so many wonderful ideas that spawned out of the characters from Season 1. It would be my absolute pleasure if we got to do this for a few years.

Is Maggie going to look any different? And did you have any say in what she might be wearing?

I went and built my whole wardrobe. I found all these pieces in thrift shops and leather makers. I just built it as close to the ideal as I could without real sewing skills. ... I didn’t want a costume that suddenly felt like a total departure from that. I knew that going into New York and telling this story of this sort of darker, deeper color of her was going to give me an opportunity to just say, “How are you hardened?” This deep blue leather jacket that I found just felt like the emotion of her. And it was in so many ways emblematic to me of the sadness of her soul and the drowning of the surrounds of the island. And then there’s all this great resource in her wardrobe. ... You’ll see as a season unfolds, but it’s like my outfit itself is a weapon.

– Barb Oates

Outlander

Fridays beginning June 16 on STARZ

SEASON PREMIERE!

The end of Droughtlander is in sight, as Claire (Caitríona Balfe) and Jamie Fraser’s (Sam Heughan) continuing love story returns for the seventh season beginning this month. Starz delivers a walloping 16-episode season, with the first eight episodes airing this year, and the second half set to arrive in 2024. An eighth and final season is on the horizon, along with a prequel spinoff, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, which centers around Jamie’s parents. When we last left Claire and Jamie, they were once again separated. This time, it was at the actions of a vengeful Richard Brown (Chris Larkin), who sent the spouses barreling off in different directions with Claire heading to Wilmington to be tried for Malva Christie’s (Jessica Reynolds) death (she was the one who claimed Jamie fathered her unborn child). And then Jamie was sent to the coast where he was to be deported back to Scotland. Thankfully, fates were changed as Young Ian (John Bell) helped rescue his uncle and put forth plans to free Claire. Whether they get to her in time is the cliffhanger we were left with. The Season 7 premiere episode is concerningly titled “A Life Well Lost,” which doesn’t sound too promising, although the following episode is far more hopeful with a title of “The Happiest Place on Earth.” As for the series’ beloved iconic theme song, “The Skye Boat Song,” it will again be refreshed to speak to the upcoming storylines, this time performed by Sinéad O’Connor.