A New Walking Dead Variant? What On Earth Is That Wild Zombie In Dead City’s Trailer?!

The Walking Dead: Dead City trailer promises the introduction of what might be the wildest zombie the franchise has ever seen. Centering on Maggie and Negan, the first of the three Walking Dead spinoffs will take its two protagonists all the way to Manhattan, New York. Their primary adversaries are other humans, but as the trailer reveals, zombies will continue to be an ever-present threat.

Based on the direction taken by Dead City, the zombies aren’t likely to be sidelined in the series by any means. Given that the two characters are headed to such a heavily populated metropolitan area where there’s no easy way out, it’s not surprising that Manhattan would be teeming with the undead. But apparently, it’s not just the zombies’ numbers that will be a problem for Maggie and Negan. The end of the Walking Dead: Dead City trailer provides a glimpse at a walker that looks completely different from all other zombies in the previous Walking Dead shows.

Dead City’s Multi-Armed Zombie Could Be A New Walking Dead Variant

Shockingly, the crawling zombie in The Walking Dead: Dead City trailer possesses at least four arms. This unnatural characteristic may be a sign that Dead City is signaling the debut of a new variant. The show introducing new variants does sound plausible, after all, especially when considering the route taken by The Walking Dead’s final season. For the most part, the series has been known for sticking to a more traditional interpretation of the undead, adhering closely to the lumbering, mindless zombies used in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. But recently, The Walking Dead has proven its willingness to shake up this classic formula.

The Walking Dead season 11 confirmed what season 1 originally implied: some zombies share heightened intelligence. Somehow, there are zombies that are smart enough to use weapons and climb walls. Not only that, but there are even walkers who can run. Since their limited speed has always been the humans’ biggest advantage against them, it would make sense that the running zombies are the most dangerous variant in existence. But if the creature previewed in the trailer is indeed a variant, it could take that title for itself. Regardless, the Walking Dead franchise officially adding variants to the zombie mythos toward the end of the main series signaled that they would be part of the franchise’s future – specifically, the spinoffs.

Walking Dead: Dead City’s Zombie Might Have A Simpler Explanation

While the possibility of the creature being a variant shouldn’t be ruled out, it’s not a given either. A detail in the trailer points to the show offering a simple explanation for the multi-armed crawler. It has an additional head, which is an indication that what’s being shown may not be one zombie with multiple arms; rather, it could just be two or three zombies melted together. An accident, whether it be a fire or something else, may have caused multiple zombies to fuse into one.

This would allow the franchise to deliver a visually unique zombie for the characters to deal with, while also avoiding any lore-changing developments at the same time. In other words, if it’s not a variant, this would likely be a one-off for the franchise. A variant reveal, on the other hand, would open the door for several of these creatures to pop up over the course of Walking Dead: Dead City’s story. The other two spinoffs would be able to use them as well. Multi-armed zombies becoming a regular nuisance in the franchise would obviously make the characters’ lives all the more difficult going forward.

Walking Dead: Dead City’s Trailer Hides Another Variant

Even if the mysterious zombie isn’t a variant, The Walking Dead: Dead City is gearing up to include at least one in its story. Thanks to the trailer, one has already been shown off. At 1:40, a zombie can be spotted making an impressive leap on a rooftop and stopping its fall with its hands. Clearly, it possesses superior agility and dexterity, and is also capable of reflexive movements. These aren’t qualities shared by the ordinary zombie, meaning that this walker is most certainly a variant.

Naturally, anything other than the standard zombie is bad news for the survivors featured in The Walking Dead: Dead City. Being in a big city overcrowded with walkers is bad enough; throwing running, smart zombies into the mix could make their Manhattan adventure the greatest challenge they’ve ever had to overcome. With that in mind, it’s in the best interests of Negan and Maggie that the multi-limbed walker at the end of the trailer really is just the product of a freak accident – and not a member of a frightening new breed of zombie.