The Walking Dead is hitting the road with Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride), who will return in a sequel series from co-creators Scott Gimple and Angela Kang. Described as a “road show” with a different tone and feel from past seasons of The Walking Dead, the as-yet-untitled spinoff won’t focus on Daryl and Carol exclusively — other characters will be along for the ride — but the two best friends will discover a new frontier in The Walking Dead Universe when the new series revs its engine sometime in 2023.

“With ‘Daryl and Carol,’ I can’t say too much about it, but I will say it’s going to be very different from The Walking Dead, going to have a different tone. It’s going to have a different mission churning under it,” Gimple, who serves as TWD chief content officer, told The Los Angeles Times. “There will be characters all around Carol and Daryl. And, of course, the musical numbers.”

Jokes aside, the spinoff won’t be quite as dark and heavy as previous seasons of The Walking Dead.

“There’s many layers of approvals and things, but [it’s meant to be] a little lighter. Not in a way that feels frivolous, but I think like all of us are looking to have fun in that world,” said Kang, who moves over to the spinoff as showrunner. “It’s a road show — I hope I can say that — and so I think it will feel distinct. It’s definitely something that Norman and Melissa and I and Scott have all talked about, what we crave tonally.”

The current tenth season of the main show planted seeds for the spinoff as early as the Season 10 premiere, where Daryl and Carol mulled over hitting the road to New Mexico. As Season 11 introduces the Commonwealth, a sprawling civilization that has mostly resumed normal life despite the ongoing zombie apocalypse, it’s easy to see outsiders Daryl and Carol journeying somewhere new.

“I think Daryl, the lone wolf, we’ve always thought, ‘That guy just rides off into the sunset at some point.’ Carol is kind of the same person,” Kang said, adding the Commonwealth story “touches on things I think are very relevant about class and about society.”

“[Comic creator] Robert Kirkman really tapped into something that I think a lot of us are thinking about,” she continued. “Obviously we’ve had to pivot to these other episodes that are part of the sort of Season 10 continuation bloc, and then for Season 11 there’s just these stories with themes that are meaningful to all of us.”

The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang has once again addressed Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol’s (Melissa McBride) special bond ahead of the season 10 premiere, describing them as “soulmates”.

Having previously spoken about the possibility of romance between the two characters, Kang has now shed a little more light on the nature of their relationship. While it might not necessarily be a romantic one, the showrunner says they “love each other” nonetheless.

Speaking to TVLine, Kang teased that Daryl and Carol “have a very big storyline together” for the upcoming season, and that although they are sometimes on “divergent tracks”, their connection is always strong.

“They are best friends,” she said. “I think they are soulmates, whether or not their relationship ever goes into romantic territory. They are tied to each other in this world and have been through so much together.”

She continued: “They love each other and they trust each other. They care what happens to the other. And yet that can be very complicated when there’s so much trauma and this bigger thing that’s taking over the communities.”

Kang previously revealed that she’d spoken to Reedus about a potential relationship for Daryl, saying: “We’ve talked about, ‘What does a relationship for Daryl look like? Is he capable of it? Where is his heart?’ All of that.

“Norman thinks very deeply about his character and has such good instincts, so we like to kind of check in with him and ask, ‘What are you thinking about this?'”

The Walking Dead chief content officer and executive producer Scott Gimple once fought to keep Carol (Melissa McBride) when talks during Season Three pointed to the grieving mother “going away.”

“I was dead set against it, because I thought it would be a great story to see a person who came from abuse become the hero and not in an easy way, that she herself had to struggle with the power that she found,” Gimple said during the AMC Networks summit.

“And that is I think Carol’s great story is that she found that she was strong, she found she had this superpower, but then it wouldn’t be easy. It wasn’t happy ever after after that, that she had responsibility and there was a weight to that strength that she found.”

Gimple was serving as writer-producer on the series under then-showrunner Glen Mazzara, who once notified McBride Carol was to be killed off just episodes into the third season.

Those plans changed when it was decided T-Dog (IronE Singleton) would make a sacrifice play rescuing Carol in 304, “Killer Within,” perishing from a walker attack when the group’s prison base was infiltrated by the undead.

“Personally, it’s been so important to me to see her become strong. It’s really hard for me to talk about that aspect of her without getting just boiled up inside because I know people like her that didn’t make it,” added an emotional McBride, whose Carol evolved from battered housewife to bow-wielding queen.

“So that aspect has always been very important to me. But yes, empathy, you need more of that. I would love to see a day when this doesn’t happen. These, by the way, are good tears because it’s important and it was a good thing what’s happened to Carol.”

Carol has since suffered the loss of adopted son Henry (Matt Lintz), who was abducted and then decapitated by Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton). The death proved so devastating it caused Carol and husband Ezekiel (Khary Payton) to split, but the “Carzekiel” fairy tale romance could return in the future.

For now, playing Carol is “such a wonderful thing,” McBride added. “And there’s some great storytelling with this character, who has just brought herself up and risen to the occasion to do what she needs to do to survive and to help the people that she cares about also survive. So it’s been pretty amazing.”

McBride and Daryl Dixon star Norman Reedus are now the longest-running Walking Dead stars, both with the series since its third episode in Season One. In November, the stars renewed their contracts and inked massive three-year deals.

The Walking Dead Season Ten is due out this fall on AMC.

There is no denying Carol and Daryl have had a special relationship throughout their time together on The Walking Dead, especially from Norman Reedus.

During an interview on AMC’s Talking Dead show, The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon actor Norman Reedus opened up about Daryl and Carol’s relationship which has remained platonic through all of its screen tie.

“There’s something about Carol and Daryl, like she knows him better than he knows himself,” Reedus said. “If somebody else were to tell him certain things, I don’t think he would hear them but, when she says stuff to him, he listens. To somebody else it might seem like he’s fine out there in the words but to her it’s like he’s lacking something and it’s become more of an emotional connection that he’s gotten rid of. Because of what happened, he’s chasing the moon. He’s never gonna catch it but he’s chasing the moon. So, she kind of takes him off guard.”

Check out the interview with Reedus as posted to Talking Dead‘s Twitter account below.

While Melissa McBride’s Carol has become romantic with King Ezekiel, many fans are still clamoring to see Carol and Daryl become more than friends. “His blessing did mean a lot to her,” McBride told ComicBook.com of Daryl’s sentiments of Carol and Ezekiel in the Season Nine premiere. “She wanted to know if he is still gonna be cool!”

As for Carol and Daryl’s future: “You never know, you know?” McBride told ET (via FanFest) ahead of Season Nine. “I love how they have each other’s back. I love their relationship. Whatever it is, I love their relationship. The fans can look forward to more Daryl and Carol scenes.”

As AMC turns the page to the next chapter of The Walking Dead, which is surprisingly exciting as it heads towards a six-year time jump and a Rick Grimes movie trilogy starring Andrew Lincoln, it would appear that the network is laying the foundation for the future. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride are settling in as the series leads with new deals that last for the next three years of the franchise.

These new contracts are not only lucrative deals, but also are not limited to the television show alone, which suggests that Daryl and Carol might appear in other The Walking Dead properties, possibly even films, one-offs, or other specials. Regardless, this news firmly establishes these two stars as the key fixtures for the post-Rick era of the series. In addition, Danai Gurira is also in talks for a new deal that should keep Michonne in the fold in a similar way as well.

Reedus’ new deal is reportedly worth $350,000 per episode with additional guarantees and upfront payments. Advance money may end up in the range of $50 million to $90 million. On the other hand, McBride’s deal is said to be worth around $20 million over the course of the new contract. Gurira’s own deal might take some time to come together considering her breakout status from starring in Black Panther and other higher-profile projects.

Also reported by THR is that the most recent episode of The Walking Dead, the last for Andrew Lincoln, saw a slight ratings bump of a 2.1 rating in its key demographic, along with 5.41 million viewers, that may hint at more increases to come as news spreads of the upcoming films and new direction of the television series, which is jumping ahead another six years following Rick’s departure out of the main group.

Lauren Cohan’s possibly-temporary exit will certainly factor into the story as it picks back up years later, but overall happened a bit more quietly than Lincoln’s. Her character’s future is being left wide open and it sounds like the only real limitations for having her return to play Maggie is with respect to scheduling.

Showrunner Angela Kang and AMC programming president David Madden confirmed the news that the previous episode was the last time we will see Maggie this season and offered fans some hope that this won’t be Cohan’s last time appearing on the show. Kang commented that there are certainly more ideas left for the character’s journey and a mutual interest in telling those stories, which bodes well for fans who want to see more of the actress.

We’ve been talking to Lauren and hopefully we’ll get to tell more story for her. We definitely have some things up our sleeve that we’d love to do. A lot of that is just a scheduling conversation, so hopefully that will all work out, because I think mutually we would like to continue with Maggie’s story, for sure.

Considering all of the recent developments to come from this pivotal episode of The Walking Dead, the future is certainly looking bright for a franchise that was in desperate need of some fresh air. There were many ways to approach this moment but it feels like AMC might have chosen the right one. Rick Grimes lives on and the show is gearing up to feel fresher than ever.

The Walking Dead continues Sunday nights on AMC with three more episodes before its midseason hiatus. The next episode is shaping up to look much different than the same old show from the last nine years, give or take. Will you be tuning in?