When a franchise reaches its 15th year, it’s only natural to seek out unusual inspirations to keep longtime fans engaged. Ahead of *The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon* season 3’s UK release, showrunner David Zabel and director Daniel Percival have revealed that the latest chapter of the horror series draws from a surprising range of influences — from classic Clint Eastwood films to the complex history of the Spanish monarchy.
“I grew up on the spaghetti westerns, and the Man with No Name movies that Sergio Leone did, and some other directors too, were always in my brain,” Zabel told GamesRadar+. “Once I knew we were going to be in the places where they filmed a lot of those, I thought, ‘Let’s lean into that even more.’ And the story that we were coming up with lent itself to that kind of narrative, too — the sort of ‘strangers in town’ thing.”
For the writing team, the history and culture of Spain also provided fertile ground for storytelling. “It was more looking at the history of the culture and the government of Spain,” Zabel explained. “Our stories mostly came from saying, like, ‘Well, how can we do something with the history of the Spanish monarchy? How can we do something that references the Civil War? How can we talk about the Basque separatist movement?’ How would the past manifest itself in the present?”
Season 3, which premiered in the US in September, finds Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) stranded in Spain after a failed attempt to sail back to the US from England. There, they encounter a pair of young survivors who have recently fled their community, Solaz del Mar, to avoid being separated by its archaic customs.
With Carol severely injured, the reluctant young couple agrees to take them back to Solaz del Mar, believing the duo can help them escape once Carol has recovered. However, their unapproved arrival quickly stirs up tension and drama within the guarded, medieval city walls.
“We create mood boards for each new season to give all the departments a guide, and spaghetti westerns were definitely a big thing here,” Percival shared. “Sergio Leone, and beyond that, John Ford and even David Lean — seeing how filmmakers in the past have set characters within these hostile landscapes. Then more recent films like *The Revenant* and, you know, Mexican-made westerns, which is really where a lot of filmmakers are very skillful at creating a very intimate environment in a very wide, open landscape.”
By blending the iconic aesthetics of classic westerns with Spain’s rich and often turbulent history, *The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon* season 3 offers a fresh, cinematic twist to the beloved horror saga.
https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/horror-shows/team-behind-the-walking-dead-daryl-dixon-season-3-on-how-clint-eastwoods-man-with-no-name-movies-and-the-revenant-influenced-the-horror-shows-latest-chapter/
