Few dress codes can send you spiraling through your closet quite like “wedding guest attire.” Fortunately, the Merokeety Satin Strapless Maxi Dress makes the decision so much easier, and Amazon shoppers tend to agree. It delivers all of the elegance of a special occasion dress, but unlike most formal outfits, it’s washable, so you won’t have to add a trip to the dry cleaner to your post-wedding to-do list.

The sleek, satin-like style is dressy enough for weddings and other formal events without requiring much effort on your part. Add heels, earrings and a clutch, and your entire wedding guest outfit is practically finished, leaving you with one less thing to worry about before the big day.

Get the Merokeety Satin Strapless Maxi Dress for $50 at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate as of the publishing date but are subject to change.

The strapless neckline gives the dress an elegant, minimalist look, while the floor-skimming silhouette brings the drama you want for a formal event. A softly draped design keeps it looking sophisticated rather than overly fussy, so accessories can completely change the vibe, depending on the dress code. It comes in so many colors that it might be hard to choose just one, but at the impressive price point, splurging on multiple colors won’t break the bank.

Related: Trending! Amazon’s Hottest Wedding Guest Dresses Are Surprisingly Luxe

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You just got the wedding invite, the ceremony is in three weeks and your closet is full of ‘maybe’ dresses that don’t quite work. Sound familiar? Finding wedding guest dresses that feel fresh, age-appropriate and actually flattering can turn into a frustrating, expensive spiral through department store racks. Here’s the good news: Amazon has quietly […]

There’s no reason to retire it after one wear. Style it with metallic heels and statement jewelry for a formal wedding, pare things back with simple sandals for a destination celebration or pull it out again for an anniversary dinner or holiday party. The washable design makes repeat wear especially practical.

Shoppers confirm that it’s a compliment magnet. “I bought a white one for my bridal shower and a pink one for a wedding,” wrote one five-star reviewer. “I got so many compliments on them!”

Another Amazon shopper put it to the test at a summer wedding in Florida. “I love this dress!” they raved, adding that the “light fabric” was particularly appreciated in the middle of summer.

If another wedding invitation just landed in your mailbox, there’s no need to panic about what you’re going to wear. This satin-looking maxi dress delivers an elegant, ready-for-the-dress-code outfit in one easy piece, and being able to wash it afterward is just the icing on the wedding cake.

Get the Merokeety Satin Strapless Maxi Dress for $50 at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate as of the publishing date but are subject to change.

Looking for something else? Explore more satin maxi dresses here and don’t forget to check out all of Amazon’s Daily Deals for more great finds!

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Related: These Fall Floral Dresses Are the Rich Mom Upgrade to Neutrals, From $7

You may think that floral prints are for only summer and neutral colors are just for fall, but rich moms aren’t following that ancient fashion rule. Instead, they’re rocking fall floral dresses, aka the most luxe, expensive-looking upgrade to boring solids. Even celebrities like Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry are on board, so naturally, so […]

Jenna Johnson has learned firsthand how difficult it can be balancing motherhood with her Dancing With the Stars career.

“Been working some really long hours this week leading up to our exciting two-night premiere and my mama heart has been a little heartbroken having to be away from my sweet boy,” Johnson, 32, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, September 13, referring to her 3-year-old son, Rome. “Grateful he was able to come to set yesterday and see all the magic happening!”

She continued, “I think I needed it more than he did.”

The two-time DWTS champ shares Rome with her husband, Val Chmerkovskiy, who is also a pro dancer on the hit ballroom competition series. (Johnson has paired up with Glee alum Harry Shum Jr., while Chmerkovskiy, 40, is set to tango with Step Up actress Jenna Dewan for season 35.)

Johnson, Chmerkovskiy and their respective celebrity partners had camera-blocking rehearsal on Saturday, September 12. For Johnson, it was a reminder that moms truly can do it all — even when it requires navigating feelings of heartbreak.

“Working mamas, I see you! We got this,” she added in her social media upload. “And to my mamas on set … grateful for your beautiful examples! Love being able to navigate this together ✨.”

Fellow DWTS pros Daniella Karagach, Witney Carson and Sharna Burgess are also moms. Karagach, 33, and dancer husband Pasha Pashkov are parents of daughter Nikita, 3, while Burgess, 41, shares son Zane, 4, with fiancé Brian Austin Green. Carson, 32, is a mom of two with another on the way. (The pregnant choreographer and her husband, Carson McAllister, already share two sons.) 

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Related: ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Pros Babies Adorably Supporting Their Parents

Witney Carson, Artem Chigvintsev and more Dancing With the Stars pros have little ones cheering them on. “He helps me on my choreo[graphy],” Carson told her Instagram followers of eldest son Leo ahead of the season 30 premiere after joking that the toddler was her 2021 partner. “Can’t express how special it is to have […]

“You guys are so inspiring!!!” pro Brandon Armstrong’s wife, Brylee Armstrong, replied in the comments section.

Karagach and Burgess will cha cha for the mirrorball with respective partners Ezra Frech and Tyler Cameron, while Carson joined forces with Guillermo Rodriguez.

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“It’s honestly been OK,” Carson exclusively told Us earlier this month about working on DWTS amid her pregnancy. “I feel like I’ve had a lot more energy than I did in my first trimester. The nausea is starting to subside and I’m starting to have a little bit more energy.”

She continued, “I was telling Guillermo I feel exactly the same physically, I’m just more out of breath, but … I don’t feel like I’m pregnant at all, honestly. I feel like I can do all the same things, which is such a blessing. I know that it will start to get a little bit harder once I get a little bit bigger.”

Dancing With the Stars season 35 kicks off with a two-night premiere on ABC and Disney+ Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.

If there’s one thing fantasy fans can’t seem to get enough of, it’s dragons. You know, large flying, fire-breathing lizards? They’ve been a staple of the fantasy genre for decades, if not centuries, as they stem from mythology. Many cultures all across the world feature some variation of dragons in their folklore, probably because they inspire such a sense of wonder and majesty.

Since fantasy books are genuinely pretty in line with mythology and folklore, a lot of them have featured these flying beasts over the years. Sometimes they are allies, other times they are villains. Sometimes they are intelligent and capable of speech, other times they are animalistic predators. Either way, these are the best fantasy books featuring dragons, all of which can be considered perfect.

‘Dragons of Deltora’ (2004)

Image via Scholastic

Deltora Quest 3, or, as it’s known in North America, Dragons of Deltora, is a compilation of four smaller YA fantasy novels. It’s a whole series in one, basically. The book comes from Australian author Jennifer Rowe, under her pen name of Emily Rodda. Like the first two books, the story is about Lief, a young man who seeks to free the land of Deltora from the clutches of the evil Shadow Lord. The first series (which received an anime adaptation) follows Lief as he reassembles the gems of the magical Belt of Deltora, while the second is about rebuilding a magical flute called the Pirran Pipe.

In this third series, Lief, along with his usual companions, Barda and Jasmine, must travel to the four corners of Deltora to destroy evil spirits called the Four Sisters. However, these sisters can only be destroyed with dragon fire, which means they must reawaken the last remaining dragons, who have been locked away in an eternal slumber. While this is primarily a book for kids aged 8–12, adults can still find enjoyment in this easy read. The Deltora series has always been a stellar introduction to fantasy for young readers, with a surprising amount of lore and incredible world-building to boot.

‘The Rage of Dragons’ (2017)

Image via Hachette B and Blackstone Publishing

Evan Winter‘s The Rage of Dragons is a really interesting read with an even more interesting setting. Instead of opting for a medieval European setting that a lot of high fantasy novels favor, his world is more analogous with Bronze Age Africa. For two centuries, the Omehi people have been locked in an eternal cycle of war and chaos. A very rare few are able to call dragons to aid them in the fight, though this power is exclusive only to women. In the midst of the chaos, a young swordsman sets out on a quest for revenge.

Author Rick Riordan gave the book his personal seal of approval, accompanied by a wordy, odeful review. Apart from the praise of one of YA fantasy’s most prominent figures, fans and critics alike have expressed their adoration for the book’s unique setting and story. It’s truly a spectacular read that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, which is why any dragon-loving fantasy fan needs to pick it up as soon as possible.

‘The Sword of Destiny’ (1992)

Image via Orbit Books

The Sword of Destiny is one of the first short story collections published as part of The Witcher saga by Andrzej Sapkowski, which, as many know, has been adapted into a live-action Netflix series. This anthology of stories follows Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster hunter known as a Witcher who travels across a high fantasy world, seeking contracts from local villagers. Not all the stories contain dragons, but there is one towards the end of the collection that does.

More specifically, it’s about the glittering golden dragon named Villentretenmerth, who is a bit of a shaky ally at best. Most of the monsters in The Witcher are ripped straight from various mythologies and folklore across a variety of cultures, so it’s to be expected that dragons would show up at some point. As far as books in The Witcher series go, this one is one of the best ones because it’s easy to digest and even easier to get lost in.

‘Tress of the Emerald Sea’ (2023)

Image via Tor Books

Tress of the Emerald Sea is a stand-alone novel in Brandon Sanderson‘s shared literary universe known as the Cosmere. The basic premise of this universe is that each series or stand-alone story is set on its own planet, all of which are in the same galaxy. The story takes place on the backwater planet of Lumar, which is closely orbited by 12 moons. The moons continuously pump spores into Lumar’s atmosphere, which make up the oceans in lieu of water. When the spores come into contact with moisture, they produce a destructive effect, which varies depending on the color of the spore. The oceans can even be sailed on due to gas jets on the planet’s surface, which fluidize the spores.

On the remote Emerald Sea island called Diggen’s Point, a young girl named Tress has fallen in love with the mayor’s son, Charlie. However, when Charlie goes missing on an overseas trip, Tress becomes determined to save him. She eventually gets wound up with a pirate crew and comes face-to-face with the dragon Xisisrefliel. While the dragon’s appearance is only a small part of the story, he is a looming background presence throughout. It’s a heartwarming, easy to read, romantic fairytale inspired by The Princess Bride. It’s one of the most underrated entries in Sanderson’s extensive repertoire.

‘A Storm of Swords’ (2000)

Image via Bantam Books

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A Storm of Swords is the third book in the acclaimed, but unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. This series famously became the cultural phenomenon that is Game of Thrones. While all the books are amazing in their own right, this third novel is considered one of the best. It’s also one of the longest, at roughly 1,000 pages. The story, as always, is about nine royal families who are feuding over the throne of Westeros while a primordial threat is silently gathering strength to the North, preparing to bring about the end of the world.

One of the major characters in this series is Daenerys Targaryen, from an exiled Westerosi house who had an affinity for dragons. After being gifted three dragon eggs during her wedding in the first book, she now possesses three young dragons that are just learning to breathe fire. While the dragons aren’t as large or mighty as they are in the later books, they are still a major part of the story. They might be small, but they are still a force to be reckoned with. In any event, this book is truly superb, and is among Martin’s finest work.

‘Dragonflight’ (1968)

Image via Del Rey

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Dragonflight is the first novel in the critically-acclaimed The Dragonriders of Pern series, which went on for 50 whole years, seeing its most recent installment in 2018. Not all the books are written by original author Anne McCaffrey, since she passed away in 2011. This first book is actually a compound book, made up of two novellas smashed into one cohesive volume.

Believe it or not, the series follows dragon riders in the land of Pern. Humans have colonized a distant planet filled with dragons, but have lost their technological capabilities, reverting them back into the Middle Ages. On this new planet, they form a relationship with the dragons, using them to combat a rising darkness eroding organic matter. This series was so long-lived and acclaimed for a reason: it’s absolutely brilliant, adventurous, and it revolutionized the fantasy genre.

‘The Hobbit, or There and Back Again’ (1937)

Image via HarperCollins

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The Hobbit is the first book published by J. R. R. Tolkien, and the very first published work in his vast Middle-Earth legendarium. This includes The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as thousands of pages of extensive history and mythology. In this novel, a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins is unexpectedly swept up in a quest to slay the dragon Smaug and reclaim the kingdom of Erebor along with 13 dwarves and the wizard Gandalf. The book was famously adapted into a trilogy of films in the early 2010s.

Even if there’s only one dragon in the story, he’s still a commanding presence and certainly counts as the main antagonist. It’s pretty much a classic dragon story, too: Smaug hordes gold, lives in a mountain, breathes fire, loves flattery… the only thing he’s missing is a kidnapped princess and a knight in shining armor. This is considered one of the finest fantasy books ever written, as it sounds like a father telling a story to his children. Beyond that, it’s family-friendly, adventurous, and full of profound moral wisdom. It’s simply a must-read for any fan of fantasy.

The nineties didn’t have streaming, so if you wanted to watch your favorite show, you had to actually be home at eight o’clock on a Thursday or you just missed it, no rewatching until reruns came around months later. That kind of pressure made a hit show feel like an actual event every single week.

These eight are the ones people still bring up unprompted, the shows you can recite half the dialogue from without trying. Some are just plain stupid fun, some snuck in more heart than you’d expect from a network sitcom, but every one of them can still get a room laughing if you put it on today. Let’s dig in.

8

‘Boy Meets World’ (1993–2000)

Image via ABC

This show basically grew up in real time with its own cast, Cory (Ben Savage) starts out as an awkward middle schooler and ends the series married to Topanga (Danielle Fishel) and about to graduate college, and you watched every year of that happen along with him. Feeny (William Daniels), his neighbor and then his teacher for basically his entire education, keeps showing up at every major turning point in Cory’s life without it ever feeling forced.

Shawn (Rider Strong) gets some pretty rough storylines for a kids’ show, an absent dad, real poverty, and the show never makes it an afterschool special about it either, it just lets him be a messed up kid trying his best. The finale ends on Feeny saying “class dismissed” one last time, and if you grew up watching this, that line still gets you a little.

7

‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ (1990–1996)

Image via NBC

Will Smith basically plays a version of himself getting sent to live with rich relatives in Bel-Air, and most episodes are just goofy fish-out-of-water comedy, Carlton’s (Alfonso Ribeiro) dance alone got referenced everywhere for decades after the show ended. Uncle Phil (James Avery) starts out as the stiff, wealthy uncle Will can’t stand, and slowly becomes the father figure Will actually needed the whole time.

Then every once in a while the show just drops a properly heavy episode on you out of nowhere, the one where Will’s actual dad shows up, promises to stay, and leaves again, and Will breaks down asking why his own father doesn’t want him. It’s one scene, and it’s still one of the best pieces of acting from a sitcom actor, period.

6

‘Frasier’ (1993–2004)

Image via NBC

Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) is a snobby radio psychiatrist living with his blue-collar dad, Martin (John Mahoney), who has zero patience for Frasier’s opera tickets and expensive furniture, and that culture clash carries half the show’s jokes. Niles (David Hyde Pierce), Frasier’s equally snobby brother, spends something like seven years pining after Daphne (Jane Leeves), the physical therapist living in the house, without ever telling her.

Some episodes turn into full-on door-slamming farce, people hiding in closets, mistaken identities, everyone talking past each other, and the show times all of it like a stage play instead of a normal sitcom. It’s smarter than most comedies from that decade without ever feeling like it’s showing off.

5

‘Home Improvement’ (1991–1999)

Image via ABC

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Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) hosts a local TV show about tools and home repair, and manages to injure himself or blow something up on basically every single episode of it, which was apparently based on Tim Allen’s actual stand-up act before the show existed.

His neighbor Wilson (Earl Hindman) gives him advice over the fence every episode, and the show never once lets you see his full face, just his eyes over the top of the fence for the entire run. It’s a simple, dumb, comfortable TV, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

4

‘The X-Files’ (1993–2002)

Image via FOX

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Mulder (David Duchovny) believes in aliens, Scully (Gillian Anderson) is the scientist assigned to prove him wrong, and the show takes almost nine years going back and forth between two totally different types of episodes, one week it’s a government alien conspiracy, the next week it’s just a creepy story about a guy who eats livers.

That mix is honestly what makes it fun to watch now, you can skip the really dense mythology episodes entirely and still get a great, self-contained horror story almost every week. Duchovny and Anderson’s chemistry keeps the show going even in the weaker seasons, and the whole thing basically predicted the entire modern conspiracy-thriller genre before it existed.

3

‘Seinfeld’ (1989–1998)

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This show is famous for being about nothing, and that’s actually true, most episodes are just Jerry, George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) getting annoyed about parking spots or soup or a marble rye. That turned into one of the most quoted shows ever made anyway.

Kramer bursting through Jerry’s apartment door is one of the most recognizable entrances in TV history, and the show’s structure, four separate storylines that all crash into each other by the end of the episode, got copied by basically every sitcom that came after it. The finale is still controversial to this day, but nothing about the ninety-nine episodes before it needed defending.

2

‘The Simpsons’ (1989– )

Image via Fox

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The nineties run of this show is what people actually mean when they say golden-era Simpsons, before the jokes got faster than the plots and the family started feeling more like caricatures of themselves. Homer accidentally becoming an astronaut, Bart selling his soul for five bucks, the show could go anywhere in a single episode and it worked almost every time.

Matt Groening built a show that could be a dumb cartoon for kids on Sunday night and also sneak in pretty sharp satire about American life for the adults watching with them. Decades later, it’s still the longest-running scripted show on American television, and the nineties seasons are the reason people still care.

1

‘Friends’ (1994–2004)

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Six friends hang out at the same coffee shop for ten years, and that’s still one of the most rewatched premises in TV history, decades after it ended. Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courteney Cox), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Joey (Matt LeBlanc), Chandler (Matthew Perry), and Ross (David Schwimmer) all get roughly equal screen time, which is rare for a cast this big.

Rachel’s haircut alone got copied by half the country at the time, and Chandler’s specific way of making a joke out of every uncomfortable moment basically became its own style of humor people still do today without realizing where it came from. It’s comfort TV in the purest sense, you can put on literally any random episode and just relax into it.

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Friends

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Release Date

1994 – 2004-00-00

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Showrunner

Marta Kauffman

Directors

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Kevin S. Bright, Gary Halvorson, Michael Lembeck, James Burrows, Gail Mancuso, Peter Bonerz, David Schwimmer, Robby Benson, Shelley Jensen, Terry Hughes, Dana De Vally Piazza, Alan Myerson, Pamela Fryman, Steve Zuckerman, Thomas Schlamme, Roger Christiansen, Sheldon Epps, Arlene Sanford, David Steinberg, Joe Regalbuto, Mary Kay Place, Paul Lazarus, Sam Simon, Todd Holland

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One Day at a Time alum Mackenzie Phillips had a rocky relationship with one of her castmates on the 1970s sitcom.

“Richard Masur wasn’t very nice,” Phillips, 66, told former costar Valerie Bertinelli on the Monday, September 7, episode of her “Getting Naked” podcast.

Phillips and Bertinelli, 66, starred in One Day at a Time as the teenage daughters of Ann Romano-Royer (Bonnie Franklin), who must adapt to single motherhood following her divorce. Masur, 77, played David Kane, Ann’s divorce lawyer-turned-fiancé. He left the show after the characters’ season 1 split.

Despite not initially getting along with Masur, Phillips said she and her former costar later “made peace.”

“I saw him and he said, ‘I don’t even remember what it was. I don’t even remember what I said, but whatever I said, I’m really sorry. And I’ve always thought you were so incredibly talented and we were all so young,’” she recalled.

One Day at a Time, developed by legendary producer Norman Lear, aired for nine seasons on CBS from 1975 to 1984. The series spawned a 2017 remake developed by Gloria Calderon Kellett and Mike Royce. The Netflix show starred Justina Machado, Rita Moreno, Stephen Tobolowsky, Isabella Gomez, Marcel Ruiz and Todd Grinnell.

During Monday’s podcast episode, Bertinelli recalled her own fears about working with Lear, who wrote and produced other hit shows including All in the Family, Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons before his December 2023 death at age 101.

“I always was in awe of him and afraid of him a little bit, always afraid I was going to be reprimanded by Norman,” she said, adding that Lear was “so loving.”

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“Both of us are incredibly lucky to have such a mentor, and someone who wasn’t what you think Hollywood is, because young girls in Hollywood are eaten up and [spit] out, and we were not, under Norman’s tutelage,” Bertinelli shared. “I felt very, very protected and I always was in awe of him and afraid of him a little bit.”

The Hot in Cleveland alum recalled Lear’s help during a particularly difficult moment when she struggled to make herself cry in the season 1 finale of One Day at a Time.

“He was the one that took me aside when I had to cry in the finale of the first season,” she shared. “And I couldn’t do it. I was too embarrassed because I wasn’t an actor. I was just learning how to do this. Now I can, but I’ve also have 50 years experience behind me.”

Sometimes, shows are canceled for the most absurd reasons and at the most heartbreaking times, leaving fans crusading for their renewal or stuck with unexplained cliffhangers. While some cancellations make sense, whether because of low viewership, high costs, or unexpected circumstances, one of the most jarring reasons a show was reportedly brought to the guillotine happened in 2010 with a live-action Cartoon Network series. With its mysterious boarding school, gifted young students, hidden rules, and an institution that clearly knows more than it lets on, Tower Prep had all the makings of a darker, more conspiratorial Harry Potter-style adventure.

Axed after just 13 episodes, the reasons stemming from viewership were disappointing, yet understandable. However, the show’s creator, Paul Dini, would later be interviewed on a podcast called “Fatman on Batman,” hosted by Kevin Smith, in which he provided another outrageous explanation for why the show was canceled, suggesting it wasn’t simply because it failed to connect with audiences but because it connected with the “wrong” one: young women.

What Is ‘Tower Prep’ About?

The single season revolves around an elusive preparatory school that scouts specially gifted students and discreetly brings them into its fold, apparently with their parents’ permission. The catch is, no one is allowed to leave. Ian (Drew Van Acker) is at the center of the series, as he groggily wakes up at the school and tries to figure out what is going on. His “special gift” is called “pre-flex,” which allows him to sense actions or events mere seconds before they happen.

As the series continues, he creates a close-knit group of friends who are investigating the mysterious location and have special abilities, including an affinity for persuasion (Ryan Pinkston), an ability to replicate things like vocal mimicry (Dyana Liu), and an instinctive expertise in facial micro-expressions (Elise Gatien). Inching closer to the dark truth of the place, Tower Prep‘s first and final season ends on a jaw-dropping cliffhanger that we will likely never get closure for.

Why Did Cartoon Network Cancel ‘Tower Prep’?

Image via Cartoon Network

A year after Tower Prep‘s inconclusive Season 1 finale aired, Cartoon Network released the TV schedule for renewed seasons, and Tower Prep was unfortunately not on this list. Dini explained the cancellation in a post on his blog via LiveJournal, where he attributed it to Cartoon Network’s shift away from live-action shows to animated ones. “Their biggest hits now are animated comedy shows,” he said. “And they most likely will continue to concentrate on producing them for the near future.” In the comment section, he further explained that five months before the live-action show even debuted, “they decided they wanted to be a cartoon exclusive network after all. The decision was made then and there to kill live drama.” It doesn’t seem like Tower Prep had much of a chance anyway.

On top of this, Dini also cited the series’ initial reception as a reason for its cancellation. “It cost a lot of money to produce and did not immediately deliver the big ratings smash they wanted; they yanked it.” However, he further argued: “Ironically, now that fans all over the world have seen Tower, and many more have watched via download, the ratings for first-run broadcast would arguably be much better, but CN remains resolute in their decision not to order new episodes.” So, even though Tower Prep grew a dedicated fanbase, it wasn’t built quickly enough for the network to justify its renewal.

There was a subsequent fight for the show’s survival. In the blog post, Dini recommended sending handwritten letters to the network to convince executives of the show’s popularity, and on X, he even provided links to online petitions. But it was going to be an uphill battle, as Dini described Cartoon Network as a company that was “not known for paying much attention to fan protests,” which is ultimately what happened. The story of Tower Prep was lost in network limbo, but this wouldn’t be the last time we heard of it. Dini was invited to a podcast in 2013, where he alleged another reason Tower Prep was canceled — one that could be considered among the most outrageous in TV history.

Paul Dini Reveals Another Reason ‘Tower Prep’ Got the Axe

Image via Cartoon Network

Image via Cartoon Network

Image via Cartoon Network

On the podcast, Dini’s comments about why Tower Prep was canceled are jarring to say the least, claiming that it was the show’s predominantly female viewership that caused it to be quietly benched after 13 episodes. He said he had heard executives at the network explicitly say, “We do not want girls watching this show.” And why? “They. Do. Not. Buy. Toys. The girls buy different toys.” It sounds so ridiculous, you can hardly believe someone would say this. While there hasn’t been much research that specifically ventures into who buys more toys, generally, children tend to gravitate towards gendered toys aligning with their own, though many papers have questioned the role of social conditioning in this. Either way, as Dini and Smith go on to discuss, just do your research and make different toys or products.

Dini expanded on his experience working on the show. “‘We need boys, but we need girls right there, right one step behind the boys’ — this is the network talking — ‘one step behind the boys, not as smart as the boys, not as interesting as the boys, but right there.’” However, Dini recounted that during pre-production, the female characters, namely CJ and Suki, ended up with nuanced backstories and characterizations that drew female viewers in, becoming an integral part of their audience. Dini described the network’s response to this as: “We’ve got too many girls. We need more boys… Boys, boys, boys. Boys buy the little spinny tops; they buy the action figures. Girls buy princesses. We’re not selling princesses.”

Cartoon Network’s boy-centric brand allegedly became the downfall of Tower Prep, where female viewership and connection weren’t celebrated but treated as a problem. Between all the reasons that have been publicized for Tower Prep‘s cancellation, it seems the show was always on shaky ground, never really finding firm footing to thrive as it should have.

In his blog, Dini also noted that Cartoon Network refused to sell the rights to the show. More than 15 years after its premiere, a revival now appears increasingly unlikely; Dini himself has continued to temper expectations about the series ever returning. But with the downfall of Tower Prep also came one of the most infuriating reasons to cancel a show: its audience may have loved it, but according to its creator, too many of those viewers simply weren’t the ones the network wanted. With HBO’s new Harry Potter series arriving this Christmas, Tower Prep feels especially ripe for rediscovery.

Tower Prep is currently available to purchase digitally through the Apple TV Store.

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Release Date

2010 – 2010-00-00

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Network

Cartoon Network

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  Drew Van Acker

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  Ian Archer

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  Ryan Pinkston

  Gabe Forrest

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Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3.

Everything that’s been building over the course of Season 3 of the AMC series The Walking Dead: Dead City came to a head in the finale, entitled “Tenebrae.” Maggie (Lauren Cohan) finally came to terms with just how much a part of her life Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) really is, and she decided to step into the leadership role that he had been pushing for all along. She also decided to trust that Hershel (Logan Kim) could hold his own and supported his involvement in their plan to take their new community back from those trying to take it and Negan down. Now, it will be interesting to see how this new dynamic evolves moving forward and what this civilization could become next.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with Cohan about how this felt like “a season of firsts” for The Walking Dead and how that could affect things moving forward. During the interview, she discussed Maggie’s frame of mind, how all of these characters are broken in their own way, redefining Maggie and Negan’s relationship, why their dynamic reminds her of the one she has with her own brother, finding a balance between being a mother and being a leader, and where things could go next, in a possible Season 4.

Lauren Cohan Says It Was Nice To Give Maggie a Bit of a Break in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 3

“This is such a season of firsts in our universe.”

Image via AMC

COLLIDER: Having karaoke with a stripper pole in a bar is not a moment that you often get in The Walking Dead. What was it like to figure out who Maggie is when she just cuts loose and doesn’t have the weight of absolutely everything on her shoulders all at once?

LAUREN COHAN: I feel like this is such a season of firsts in our universe. And not just Dead City, but The Walking Dead as a whole. It was amazing. It was funny because Maggie being tipsy, just on an actor level, when you’re with people who you know and you’re familiar with, it’s definitely easier to do that because you can imagine being merry with them. That part feels like, “Okay, cool, so now all I have to remember is, in some sense, this is more of a friendship with Jeff [Dean Morgan] than a Maggie dynamic with Negan.”

The episode leads up to a point where there’s a lot of relief for the group and they’ve taken a risk and it’s paid off, and it’s a whole new frame of mind for her. The only way through now is to do something different, and that applies across the board. When we did that episode, what made it so much fun was watching Jimmi [Simpson] and Aimee [Garcia] sing karaoke naturally makes you feel really relaxed and drunk-happy. There were definitely a lot of elements of uncharted territory, but also genuine fun in the episode and in a lot of moments during the season.

The tension that Maggie has had for so long became these exercises for me. The tension of needing to see things a certain way or needing to keep rigid or keep your horse blinders on, or keep safe and keep people safe, or maintain a point of view, if you just remove that one thing, it’s the equivalent of suddenly being on the beach for a normal person. It was so fun for us to do it. We had so many moments like that this season.

Maggie and Negan Are Both Just Doing the Best That They Can in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’

“I really believe, in life and in the show, that people are in your life for a reason.”

There’s the moment in the finale when Maggie says to Negan, “You’ve got me. We’re forever connected. We’re chained to one another.” She’s never going to forgive him, but they’ve moved past it. Is she the only one who can humanize him in that way?

COHAN: People feel really connected to Negan in a lot of ways, and that’s testament to Jeff’s charisma and warmth and the relatability of Negan. He does these abhorrent things. He does less of them now, obviously. There’s just something relatable, even in his reactivity and how he traipses through life and what a broken person he is. Everybody that’s left is broken and is a patchwork of coping mechanisms. I hope they never change. Everybody is a total Tin Man. To answer that question now, to me, almost tries to get ahead of the way I might be able to say it when all of The Walking Dead is over, and I look back in five years at what it meant.

I really believe, in life and in the show, that people are in your life for a reason, and you either continue to face the challenges that they bring up for you, or you say, “Thank you,” you move on, and you realize that it was a moment, or you kill them. There’s a million times when I’ve looked at it like, “She should have just killed him. When Rick stopped her, she should have pushed him out of the way and gone for it.” I always feel Hershel Sr. is on my shoulder, and I always feel like there’s a dichotomy in Maggie of a cut and dry brutality, trying to learn how to lead people and being a hugely compassionate person.

There are so many moments within the season, and it isn’t completely magnanimous. He sees the good in Maggie and tells her, and I see the brokenness and the good in him and I tell him, and I thank him for how he’s helped. The archetypes of these characters have always been pretty front and center. If you think about what makes someone a hero, what makes someone brave, what makes someone a leader, what makes someone a fighter, and what makes someone just a little bit of some of those things some of the time, but also completely screwed up and fumbling through and not knowing what you’re doing, it’s a giant metaphor for parenting. Everybody’s just doing the best they can with the information that they have at the time. It’s the friction that comes from them both being around and both being in each other’s orbit that’s fascinating to me.

It’s especially interesting this season because they’ve formed more of a partnership now. Throughout the season, she resisted being a leader, and it seems like finding a partnership is what allows her to be able to step into that leadership position. She hands him that badge and says she wants him to lead security while she’s in charge. Why do you think Negan saw her as a leader before she saw it in herself, and what do you think it is that really helped her finally see it?

COHAN: When I think about that scene, or I think about the season, I feel how much he wants her forgiveness and how much he wants to help her and how much he cares for her, which is very natural. If you take away the main part of their history, I do think it’s like brother and sister. People ‘ship Negan and Maggie so hard, but if I think about my relationship with my own brother, I give him shit, but I know what he’s capable of. You just have these little quirks, and there’s certain people in the world who can lovingly call them out and make fun of them but also know that you’re a fucking badass. I feel like that’s how Negan is to Maggie.

To survive in this world, there are so many things, and not just in this world [of the show]. I really think you can get lost in the past or lost in resentment in life, and it’s like, “Am I going to, or am I going to find the best way to move forward?” What begins as, “I cannot forget this thing and I hate you, and I see everything you do through this lens” becomes, “You are synonymous with this thing, but I haven’t killed you and I’m not going to kill you” to, “Yes, this thing happened, but I’m focusing on something else right now. I’m choosing to focus on this” to, “If people can change in a lifetime — and The Walking Dead, because of all the shit they go through, is somehow many, many lifetimes — then maybe they can change monumentally in this one.”

The leadership thing came about in an interesting way because I got fatigued by giving people these monikers. With Maggie, I don’t want it to just be, “Leader, mother, warrior.” What it led to in the season was a real working mother deciding if she can hold down a CEO job and still raise her kids. We wanted to put that inside the apocalypse, but not quite so literally as that. What permission do you need to give yourself to fulfill your own potential and still be there for your kids? The thing that I think allows it to happen this season is Hershel saying to Maggie at the beginning of the season, “I remember all the times you were there.” And then, we see the mentorship through Luis. We see that he doesn’t want her to hurt anymore, and he’s okay with her allowing Negan to be a part of this new world that they’re building and sees the strengths in him and wants to be a part of this community.

She’s been so afraid to open up to the idea of these possibilities, as well as being with a new community and potentially failing again and losing people again. But I think she realizes that she did okay by her son. He is equipped to jump in and come on the ride. But it’s more than that. It’s never literal. It’s never just, “I’m going to literally just stare at and be with my child.” It’s more like, “Will I have the bandwidth?” It’s like teaching. If you can, you should.

In ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 3, Maggie Has Realized That Negan Is Family, for Better or Worse

“Our skill sets complement each other.”

Image via AMC

What do you think this new partnership between Maggie and Negan will be like? How do you see this new dynamic working out between them?

COHAN: It’s funny, it goes back to the sibling thing. What’s been realized, without necessarily being explicitly said, is that our skill sets complement each other. That, for me, comes down to recognizing and encouraging him. Within the season, there’s the light versus the fight. But when it comes down to it and I say to him, “You’re the only one that understands the brutality that it really does take,” it’s not all sunshine and roses. It’s never going to be. Whether Maggie realizes it or not, there is this subconscious recognition that when the shit comes down, she can rely on him to do the thing that will keep people safe, which is his greatest pride, ironically, and his excuse for some of the insane things that he did. If you asked him, he would say that it was to protect his people. Maggie will never believe that. However, with the Negan that is now, she does believe that it’s possible.

I think the most important thing that will influence them moving forward is that it’s like being family. They may not like each other all the time. She may still want to kill him sometimes. She may still find him insufferable. He may find her insufferable and stubborn. But Maggie and Negan have known each other the longest of anyone that we know that’s still living. Rick and Michonne, and Daryl and Carol, and Eugene — these people are still alive, but we don’t know where they are. Maggie and Negan have known each other longer than she’s had her kid. They’ve been through the fire together, even if it has been inflicted by one or the other. From that basis, they will go into uncharted territory, in terms of building something new. I really think this could be the beginning of a huge, robust civilization, ironically born from the ashes of how they met.

The Walking Dead: Dead City airs on AMC.

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Release Date

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June 15, 2023

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AMC

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Showrunner

Eli Jorne, Seth Hoffman

Directors

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Kevin Dowling, Loren Yaconelli

Writers

Brenna Kouf

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Pink served up a dose of mother-son fun at the 2026 US Open men’s singles final.

Pink, 47, stepped out at the Sunday, September 13, championship between Ben Shelton and Alexander Zverev alongside her 9-year-old son, Jameson. After walking the official red carpet together, Pink and Jameson watched the match from the stands.

Pink sported a green blazer with coordinating sunglasses, while Jameson also opted for green, which complemented his bright pink hair. (Jameson previously showed off his rose-colored locks at the 2026 Tony Awards in June, which his mom hosted.)

In addition to Jameson, Pink and her husband, Carey Hart, share 15-year-old daughter Willow. They recently relocated to New York City in order to better support Willow’s budding theater career.

Related: Pink and Carey Hart’s Family Album: The Sweetest Photos With Their Kids

Pink and her husband, Carey Hart, have been documenting their lives with daughter Willow and son Jameson since becoming parents. Thank You! You have successfully subscribed. Subscribe to newsletters Enter your email Please enter a valid email. Subscribe By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us […]

“We actually moved here because I am an amazing mom,” Pink explained on The Kelly Clarkson Show in March. “And also so Willow could study theater and experience more Broadway.”

Pink even cited Willow as her inspiration for accepting the gig to host the Tonys this summer.

“Tonight, I am here as Broadway’s biggest fan — well second biggest next to my daughter, Willow,” the rock star gushed in her opening monologue. “I don’t know where she is [in Radio City Music Hall], but I did not take this job so my kid could get Broadway selfies, although [we have backstage before tonight].”

Earlier that month, Pink gushed that “more talented” than her famous mom.

“She’s more talented than I ever was at her age. And she’s also just really earnest, she’s a hard worker, she’s an A-plus student,” Pink said on CBS Mornings during a June interview. “She once said, ‘I want to get Broadway out of the way so I can be a trauma surgeon,’” she shared. “She’s so confident, and she walks through the world with such poise and grace. I’ve seen her on stage and I’m like, ‘Who is that person?’”

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Even before tackling the Tonys stage, Pink made sure that Willow approved of the position.

“When I was asked to host the Tonys, I immediately thought, ‘I have to get permission from my daughter.’ I’ve never been on Broadway, and shouldn’t you have to have been on Broadway in order to host? That seems fair and right,” Pink noted in an April statement. “But when I asked my daughter, she was really excited about being able to have a ticket to go to the Tonys, so I’m hosting the Tonys and I’m really, really excited and very nervous because that girl is a tough crowd!”

Pink was joined at the Tonys by Hart, 51, and their two kids.

Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber are seemingly marking their eighth wedding anniversary with a friendly game of pool.

“8 years until infinity ❤️ NEW BEGINNINGS ♾️,” Justin, 32, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, September 13, sharing a handful of images of himself playing a round of the beloved bar game with his wife, 29. “I love you baby Happy Anniversary 😘.”

Hailey replied in the comments section, writing, “8 years of me being horrendous at playing pool 😍😍.”

The Rhode founder reposted Justin’s PDA-filled roundup to her Instagram Stories, along with the caption, “🙈 🤍.”

The “Peaches” singer and Hailey have been married since September 2018, later welcoming son Jack Blues in August 2024. (Jack turned 2 late last month, which the couple commemorated with an intimate pancake breakfast.)

“It’s total bliss for the two of them,” a source exclusively told Us after Hailey gave birth. “Hailey is enjoying and savoring these moments being a new mom. She is over the moon and in [the] mom zone, and completely focused on the health of the baby.”

The insider further noted that Justin was a “very hands-on” father to Jack.

While raising their son, Justin and Hailey also learned new truths about their marriage.

“We’re just taking it a day at a time,” Hailey told GQ in a November 2025 profile. “We both feel very protective of our son and I don’t think that’s ever going to change, but our life is our life and it is really public, so I think we’re just going to cross every bridge that we need to when we get there. But as of right now, I feel really comfortable about the way we are sharing things and not sharing things.”

At the time, Hailey hinted whether she and the Grammy nominee had plans to expand their family of three.

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Related: How Justin and Hailey Bieber Celebrated Son Jack’s 2nd Birthday

Justin and Hailey Bieber’s son, Jack Blues, is officially out of the baby stage after turning 2 on Saturday, August 22. Taking to her Instagram Stories, Hailey, 29, offered a glimpse of the family of three’s festivities. “2 ❤️,” the Rhode founder captioned a pic of a plate full of pancakes topped with swirls upon […]

“I don’t think there’s anything someone can tell you about it that will ever, ever, ever prepare you until you do it yourself,” she told the outlet. “But I feel much more prepared to do it again, as opposed to how not prepared I felt doing it for the first time. And I think for me personally, there’s so much unknown to it, but so much happens and so much changes and you evolve in a totally different way that you would never be able to prepare for until you do it.”

As for Justin, he’s equally enjoyed life as a family man. His latest album, Swag, even features sweet shout-outs to both Hailey and Jack.

“Hailey, babe, hallelujah,” Justin sings in the chorus of “Everything Hallelujah” off the record. “Baby Jack, hallelujah.”

Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3.

The Walking Dead franchise kicked off on AMC in 2010, and after 11 seasons and a variety of spin-offs, it’s still going strong, 16 years later. But that doesn’t mean the cast and showrunner of Dead City didn’t want to shake things up in Season 3, deciding to experiment and take chances with elements that haven’t been explored previously. Whether it was pushing the character dynamics in different directions, showing an alternate reality of life without the apocalypse and walkers, or letting us see what a sitcom in this world would look like, things have definitely felt different this season. One thing that is exactly the same is that Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are fighting walkers to keep their community safe while human enemies often become an even greater threat to their survival.

After watching the season finale, Collider got the opportunity to chat with new showrunner Seth Hoffman, who previously worked on Seasons 4, 5 and 6 of the mothership series, about his approach to Season 3 of Dead City and how he’d like to continue to experiment moving forward in possible future seasons. During the interview, he discussed doing new things with the series while still making it feel like classic The Walking Dead, his hope to keep doing things that haven’t been seen in the franchise previously, clearly defining Maggie and Negan’s relationship, and how this new partnership between them could play out in Season 4.

‘Dead City’ Wanted To Shake Things Up for Season 3 While Still Feeling Like Classic ‘The Walking Dead’

“The way I solved that puzzle was to go, ‘Okay, let’s bring these characters back to who they were.’”

COLLIDER: When I spoke to both Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohen about this season, they talked about how exciting it was to be trying some new things and experimenting a bit with characters that they thought they couldn’t know any better than they already did. Why did this season feel like the right season to shake things up in that way?

SETH HOFFMAN: I think for a couple of reasons. When I came on, in talking to the network, they wanted to know, “What can we do that’s new?” And some of the producers wanted it to feel like classic The Walking Dead. It was a puzzle. It was about, “Okay, how do I make it feel classic, but also make it feel new?” The way I solved that puzzle was to go, “Okay, let’s bring these characters back to who they were.” Let’s bring back a version of Maggie that is the hopeful, optimistic version of herself that she was in Season 2, 3, and 4 of the mothership. Let’s bring back the version of Negan that is unpredictable and a little bit of a live wire, who the audience fell in love with in Season 7 and 8 before he got thrown in jail and before he got put under the thumb of the Croat and the Dama. Let’s put those versions of those characters back center stage, and those versions of those characters have never interacted with each other. In that way, it can feel like classic The Walking Dead, but by them engaging with one another, it will feel new and fresh. That was the hope for Season 3.

Is that where the alternate reality episode came from, and even just the little snippet of the sitcom that we get at the beginning of the finale?

HOFFMAN: Yeah. It was, “Here are two characters, and they’re going to be driving us through this season. The concept for Episode 6 was less of a micro decision. I want to push this franchise that I love and that I worked on for three years and that is one of the highlights of my entire career in new directions. I want to see what the limits are for what a Walking Dead episode can be. When I came up with the idea for that episode, when I pitched it to the network, it was, “The Walking Dead does stories where people feel dread, and these people are going to feel dread in this episode because they’re going to be worried that Maggie and Negan are going to hook up. It’s a horror romantic comedy.”

I wanted to push the episodes in different directions, so there are all these little micro decisions like, “How far can we push that scene in the top of the finale towards sitcom and make it still feel like The Walking Dead?” In Episode 5, when we’re introducing the characters in The Dead Squad, that isn’t necessarily a cinematic choice that we’ve seen in The Walking Dead before, but can that be part of The Walking Dead’s language? There were lots of ways in which I was trying to push and make it feel fresh and new while also making it feel like The Walking Dead.

Do you still have some ideas for that kind of experimentation for another season? Like how much have you thought about what a Season 4 could be and what more you could do with it?

HOFFMAN: If we’re lucky to get a Season 4, I will continue to push the envelope. People will see things in a Season 4, if we’re lucky enough to get it, that they’ve never seen in The Walking Dead universe, but also, they will feel like The Walking Dead stories.

‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 3 Clearly Defined Maggie and Negan’s Relationship so They Can Move Forward Together

“In a Season 4, that would be a really exciting dynamic to explore.”

Image via AMC

There’s a moment in the finale that feels like it’s been a long time coming when Maggie says to Negan, “You’ve got me. We’re forever connected. We are outright chained to one another.” She’s never going to forgive him, but they’ve moved past it and they’ve gotten closer. What do you love about that moment between them and about how Maggie humanizes Negan?

HOFFMAN: It was important for us to really clearly define Maggie’s relationship towards Negan. I think Negan’s relationship towards Maggie is pretty clear. He kills for her. He wants to protect her. She is so important to him. Maggie’s feelings towards Negan, for a long time, were very defined by, “I hate you, you killed my husband.” In this season, she has let some of that go. So, where is she? We worked hard to really parse the language in that scene to make it clear that she’s not forgiving him and she will never forgive him. She isn’t happy about the fact that Negan, in some ways, makes her a better person. She probably really hates the fact that Negan makes her a better person, but he does.

That’s where they are right now. She could fight against that and try to move away from him and live her own life. Part of what we were trying to say in Episode 6 is, “If you do part, then maybe you’ll fall into old patterns that aren’t necessarily the best version of yourself. Let’s see what happens if the two of you actually do work together for the greater good.” I think, in a Season 4, that would be a really exciting dynamic to explore.

Airing that out also opens it up for Hershel to work with them as a little trio, which you couldn’t have gotten to if that hadn’t happened.

HOFFMAN: A hundred percent. To think about where the two of them were at the beginning of this season versus where they are at the end of this season, it’s a monumental change. Now that these two characters are where they are, it would be incredibly exciting to explore what their next step would be.

‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 4 Would See Maggie and Negan Having New Conflicts

“They’ll be in conflict about that.”

Image via AMC

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At the end of the finale, Maggie hands that badge to Negan so that he can lead security while she’s in charge. What do you think that new partnership between them could be like? How do you see that dynamic working out?

HOFFMAN: A big thing that we’ve done this season is to give both of them something that they care deeply about. They cared deeply about this community, and they want it to thrive. Everything the Croat said in Episode 1, this city has everything to rebuild society in. Both of them, by the end of the season, have really embraced that. This is home. They’re moving into a working relationship, which they’ve never had before. They have different worldviews, they have different strategies, they have different tactics, and they both want the best for the city, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing. Maggie might think one thing is the best, and Negan might think a different thing would be the best. And so, they’ll be in conflict about that, but their conflict won’t be rooted in the fact that Negan killed Glenn. It’ll be rooted in present-day circumstances, which is something both of them really want. That is where their relationship would live in a Season 4.

The Walking Dead: Dead City airs on AMC.

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Release Date

June 15, 2023

Network

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AMC

Showrunner

Eli Jorne, Seth Hoffman

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Directors

Kevin Dowling, Loren Yaconelli

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Writers

Brenna Kouf

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