LOST in France

Survivor Daryl Dixon battles a terrifying new threat as the latest Walking Dead spin-off heads to Europe

- NATASHA HOLT, ALISON SLADE

The zombie apocalypse comes to Europe this week in a new The Walking Dead spin-off, which focuses on crossbow expert Daryl Dixon as he washes ashore in France – with no idea how he got there.

Daryl, played by Norman Reedus, arrives to find post-apocalyptic France – where the zombie virus originated – is a broken but resilient place as he encounters a new varian of walkers called ‘burners’.

It’s a brand-new challenge for the resourceful biker, who we met in the very first season of The Walking Dead in 2010.

‘When I first got the script, I was like, “So you’re going to drop this redneck in France. How am I going to play him with a scarf on?”’ jokes Reedus, 55. ‘But I was excited. I wanted to do something fresh. If you didn’t have Daryl growing as a person, I’d be playing the same thing over and over again.’

Daryl finds himself near Marseilles, but his unexpected arrival inadvertently leads to violence with a group of paramilitary survivors, and he’s helped by a headstrong nun, Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), who takes him to the abbey of the Union de L’Espoir.