Will The Walking Dead finally reunite Rick and Daryl?

If you thought sixteen years slashing your way through the zombie apocalypse would be enough for Norman Reedus, well, he finally seems to agree. The fourth and final season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has finished filming, and Reedus has officially bid farewell to Daryl – at least for now. But if you reckon that means we’ll never get another brooding Daryl–Rick Grimes reunion… not quite so fast.

'Absolutely, Still a Hope'

Fans have been speculating for months: will Daryl ever share the screen with Rick again, now Andrew Lincoln's returned to shamble round the franchise? Scott M. Gimple, chief architect of all things Walking Dead these days, was recently pressed for answers about the pair's possible future. His answer:

"Absolutely, still a hope. I mean, it's very challenging for a variety of reasons, which have everything to do again with 2026 production. But things change very quickly, and I've drawn up all sorts of garden-of-forking-paths kind of plans.

It might be a minute, it might be tomorrow, I might be off at the retirement home, but I think eventually we'll get there. There's enough source material, emotional, plotwise, that we could do something brilliant."

Translation: don't burn your crossbows just yet, but don't hold your breath either. 2026 seems to be the earliest anything could shift behind the scenes, but nobody's saying a firm yes or no. Gimple apparently has enough possible scripts scribbled out to wallpaper a bunker.

How Did We Get Here?

Originally a straight-up post-apocalyptic survival show, The Walking Dead has ballooned into a TV mega-franchise that even the most loyal fans struggle to keep track of. Here's the current state of play:

• The original series: 11 seasons, set the template, went fully bonkers by the end.
• Fear the Walking Dead: 8 seasons, sometimes inspired, sometimes… not.
• The Walking Dead: World Beyond: 2 seasons, for completists only really.
• Tales of the Walking Dead: 1 season so far, with more allegedly on the way.
• Dead City: 3 seasons, next one hitting AMC on 26th July. Zombies in Manhattan, because why not?
• Daryl Dixon: 4 seasons, with the final run following later this year. Yes, seriously, Daryl in France.
• The Ones Who Live: 6-episode miniseries, all about Rick's return, more closure than most TWD spin-offs have ever offered.

If you’re struggling to follow: in this universe, no-one’s ever truly gone, and ending one show usually just means sidestepping into another corridor full of undead.

Norman Reedus Gets Nostalgic

After all those years, Norman Reedus took to Instagram with a few behind-the-scenes shots, waxing surprisingly sentimental about the whole thing. He mentioned sifting through old photos from the final episode and admitted it was 'really hard to kill any of them', referring to memories and presumably not spoiling any major deaths. He praised the crew – 'the best I’ve ever worked with' – and said finishing felt like 'such hard work and so much heart put into this, I think you’re gonna feel it.' According to Reedus, this season 'hits just way different this time.'

Next up for TWD obsessives: Dead City returns on 26th July, followed by Daryl's final season later in the year. Whether or not Rick and Daryl share cigarettes in a ruined farmhouse again, as ever, we’ll have to wait on the next round of network wheeling-and-dealing.