The Walking Dead – Daryl Dixon: theory confirmed – that’s why young Laurent is so important for the TWD spin-off

• Religion plays a big theme in “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.”
• Daryl is supposed to accompany a boy who was raised by nuns from the Union of Hope on a trip.
• Laurent is seen by the nuns as the new messiah.

“The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” does a lot of things differently than the previous TWD series. Not only does the spin-off take place in Europe, the Daryl offshoot also opens up new perspectives thematically. So religion will be an important point in the story surrounding Daryl’s adventures.

During his journey through France and his search for a way back to the USA, Daryl ends up in a monastery run by nuns from the “Union of Hope”. The ladies are armed to the teeth and are on a mission to bring faith back to the post-apocalyptic world.

Laurent is said to be the new messiah and leader of humanity

It doesn’t matter what faith or religion the members of the Union of Hope follow – the only important thing is to ignite hope in people. The boy Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) grew up with the nuns. He was taught by them in every subject imaginable and plays an important role within the monastery.

When Daryl shows up at the monastery, he is chosen as the “messenger” who will take the boy to the “nest” in Le Havre, the headquarters of the Union of Hope. There, Laurent is supposed to lead the “revival of humanity.” A bit much to ask of an eleven-year-old child, right? But the nuns see the boy as a chosen one after the leader of the Union of Hope, a Buddhist monk, prophesied that Laurent was the new messiah and the future leader of humanity.

For the nuns, Laurent is a kind of Jesus figure and the “cure” for the zombie apocalypse. More in a spiritual sense than in a scientific sense. And the boy really seems to have clairvoyant powers, or at least good intuition. Shortly before Daryl arrived, he painted a picture in which Daryl can be seen and prophesied that this man would become a messenger who would take him to Le Havre.

And Daryl also becomes suspicious when the boy repeats a sentence that he previously heard from his foster daughter Judith Grimes: Daryl also deserves a happy ending. If it turns out that Laurent really has supernatural powers, it would be a real first for the TWD universe, in which religion and spirituality have hardly played a role so far.

“The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” started on September 10, 2023 on the US broadcaster AMC and the streaming service AMC+. If you want to watch the series immediately after it airs in the US, you can easily subscribe to AMC+ via a VPN service. The spin-off will also launch in Germany on MagentaTV this year.