The Walking Dead's new spinoff compared to HBO's The Last Of Us

The story of the new Walking Dead spin-off show Daryl Dixon is being repeatedly compared to The Last Of Us.

The Walking Dead aired its final episode in November 2022, but fans haven’t had to wait long for more post-apocalyptic zombie adventures. Several spin-off shows have been released/planned, including Dead City and The Ones Who Live.

Check out the trailer for Daryl Dixon below!

Today’s topic of conversation though is Daryl Dixon, another spin-off that follows the fan-favourite character on his adventures in France of all places. No idea how he got there but we’ll roll with it. Critics recently gave their thoughts on the show and the results were overwhelmingly positive, however many are pointing out similarities between the show and The Last Of Us.

The story follows Daryl as he escorts a young girl across the country, who’s believed to be the cure for the virus that’s swept the world, sound familiar? Turns out the team behind the show became aware of the similarities, but weren’t in a position to do anything about it. Speaking in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Greg Nicotero spoke about how he watched The Last Of Us whilst Daryl Dixon was in production, and immediately realised the two were similar.

He said: “I remember watching the first episode of The Last Of Us and going, ‘Ummm… guys?’ We were already deep into production when The Last Of Us came out. I enjoyed The Last Of Us tremendously.” This statement did confuse a lot of fans though, given how the story of The Last Of Us has been around since 2013, when the game first came out for the PlayStation 3.

That being said, this isn’t the first time The Walking Dead has been accused of 'borrowing' ideas from The Last Of Us. The Dead City spin-off faced some flack for its ‘Zombie King’ monster, which fans immediately identified as an obvious rip-off of The Rat King from The Last Of Us Part 2.

Regardless, Daryl Dixon is already being regarded as a smash-hit and has been renewed for a second season.