Top 7 The Walking Dead: Dead City characters, ranked

The Walking Dead: Dead City drops Maggie and Negan into a ruined version of Manhattan where survival looks different from what they faced before. Hershel has been taken. Maggie has no choice but to track him down. To do that, she needs help from Negan, who is the last person she ever wanted to trust again. The streets are dangerous. The buildings are hollowed out. The rules have changed.

This is not a clean mission. It is not about hope or healing. Maggie still carries the memory of what Negan did to Glenn. Negan is trying to move forward, but the past keeps pulling him back. Their partnership is uneasy. They both want something. They both know it could fall apart at any moment.

The Walking Dead: Dead City also brings in new faces. Some are kind. Some are unpredictable. Others are completely unhinged. These characters are not just background noise. They make things harder. They make the story heavier. Everyone has a reason for what they do. Nobody is clean.

The Walking Dead: Dead City is not just a zombie show. It is a show where choices hurt and trust comes with a cost. These seven characters define what the season becomes and where it could go next.

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Top 7 The Walking Dead: Dead City characters, ranked

1. Negan

Negan starts off trying to stay quiet in The Walking Dead: Dead City. He’s done too much damage and knows it. But when Maggie shows up asking for help, something clicks. He sees a chance to do something good or at least not make things worse.

His connection to the Croat makes him the key to the entire mission. He used to lead men like that. Now he has to fight them. And even though he tries to stay calm, moments still come where the old Negan slips out. The cage fight and the standoff with the Croat remind everyone what he can do when he loses control.

He forms a bond with Ginny and then rips it apart on purpose. He wants to protect her by pushing her away. But it backfires. That moment adds weight to his choices. Negan’s past never lets go. In Dead City, that tension becomes more dangerous than any walker.

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2. Maggie

Maggie walks into Manhattan with one goal. Hershel has been taken. She’s going to get him back. To do that, she has to work with Negan. She doesn’t like it. She doesn’t hide it. But she does it anyway.

What viewers don’t know at first is that Maggie plans to trade Negan for her son. She hides it from him and justifies it by saying it’s for Hershel. But the guilt never really leaves. It shows up in her hesitation. It shows up in her silence. She’s torn between revenge and doing what’s right.

Maggie fights hard and never backs down. She’s still haunted by Glenn’s death and can’t move past it. But when she sees how that pain affects Hershel, something shifts. She starts to realize that holding onto hate has a cost. Maggie’s choices drive the season. She makes the show harder, sharper, and impossible to predict.

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3. Ginny

Ginny never says much. In fact, she barely says anything at all. But every move she makes tells us exactly who she is. Her silence comes from trauma. She saw her father get murdered and hasn’t spoken since. That pain sits quietly behind everything she does.

She follows Negan not because she’s told to, but because she trusts him. When Maggie takes Negan into Manhattan, Ginny runs away from Hilltop and follows them across the water alone. She sneaks past guards. She crosses into walker territory. She does it all without backup. That choice shows what kind of person she is.

She’s the reason Negan starts questioning himself. When he pushes her away and says he never cared, her expression breaks the moment in half. That decision haunts him. Ginny doesn’t just move the story forward. She changes how we see Negan. And she does it without saying a word.

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4. Hershel

Hershel isn’t a little kid anymore. He’s a teenager now, and he’s angry. His mother won’t let go of the past. His father died before he was born, and he’s been living in that shadow ever since.

He gets kidnapped by the Croat and is kept in a cell. They cut off his toe. They feed him barely enough. But he doesn’t break. He doesn’t cry. He waits. He knows Maggie is coming but doesn’t know what it will cost her.

When she finally saves him, he doesn’t run into her arms. He just sits there. That silence says everything. He’s tired. He’s confused. He wants something more than just survival. Hershel is what keeps Maggie going. But he also reminds her that she’s not the only one who has suffered. His pain adds weight to hers. His stillness says more than any outburst. And that stillness changes how we see her.

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5. Perlie Armstrong

Perlie walks into the story thinking he’s the law. He’s a marshal. He believes in rules. He believes people who break them should pay. That’s why he’s after Negan.

But once he gets to Manhattan, he realizes none of that matters. He ends up in a cage with walkers. He has to fight to stay alive. He wins. But not with grace. With desperation. That moment strips away everything he thought he was.

Perlie’s guilt over his brother never really leaves. It drives him. It blinds him. But slowly, he starts to see that people like Maggie and Negan live in a world he doesn’t understand. He learns that survival looks different here. He doesn’t like them. But he starts to understand them. That shift makes him useful. It also makes him human. Perlie stops being a symbol of the law. He becomes someone trying to make sense of what’s left.

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6. Amaia

Amaia helps run the resistance group in Manhattan. She stands next to Tomasso and helps lead without ever being loud or aggressive. She watches first. Then she decides what to do.

When Negan and Maggie arrive, Amaia doesn’t welcome them. She tests them. She asks the right questions. She earns trust the hard way. When Tomasso is revealed as a traitor, it hits her harder than anyone else. But she doesn’t fall apart. She keeps going.

She fights until the end and dies in the sewer surrounded by walkers. Maggie kills her before she can turn. That moment matters. It shows respect. It shows a connection. Amaia doesn’t get long speeches or heroic exits. But she leaves a hole when she’s gone. That absence changes the group. It leaves a mark on Maggie. Amaia proves that strength isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s steady. And that kind of strength lasts longer.

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7. The Dama

The Dama sits in a dark room. She speaks softly. She never raises her voice. But everyone listens. Because she runs things. Not the Croat. Not the others. Just her.

She uses the Croat to control the fuel trade. She controls who lives and who dies in the city. She cuts off a boy’s toe just to prove a point. She does not waste time. She does not show mercy.

When she meets Negan in The Walking Dead: Dead City, she doesn’t flinch. She tells him what she wants. She doesn’t need him to like her. She needs him to obey. Her presence in the last episode changes everything. It shows that the real threat was never the Croat. It was always her. The Dama doesn’t need to fight to take control. She already has it. That’s what makes her so dangerous. And it’s why Season 2 will revolve around her, not anyone else.

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