It's a a tender duet for the apocalyptic ages.
The Walking Dead franchise has had some truly shocking moments over its 14 year run: Barnageddon, the cannibals of Terminus, the killing of Lizzie on “The Grove,” Alpha leaving 10 heads on spikes… you get the picture. However, Daryl Dixon may top all of those shockers during season 2 of the spinoff, which premieres Sept. 29 on AMC. That’s because the series is poised to surprise viewers with a truly astounding sight (and sound). And that would be the sound of Norman Reedus… singing?
Yes, we will get to hear the star’s vocal chops in a forthcoming episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol. Without spoiling too much, we can tell you not to expect an entire musical episode a la Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s “Once More, With Feeling.” Nor should you be bracing yourself for a big song and dance number with a top hat and tails (although that would be awesome). But it is a very familiar tune Reedus’ character will be crooning, and it comes at a very emotional moment in the series.
Not only that, but the reason for Reedus singing is likely to make fans swoon — he did it to make his young costar more comfortable. It turns out the song was originally intended to be a solo for 14-year-old Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, whose character of Laurent was going to be playing the number on guitar and singing. But, in talking to Entertainment Weekly for our latest cover story, Reedus reveals, “Louis was nervous about singing the song. So I go, ‘You know what? I'm just going to sing it with you.’” (You may now commence swooning.)
The moment will open one of season 2’s episodes, and showrunner David Zabel was impressed with both the talent and the teamwork. “It was very sweet because Louis was nervous about playing it, and he was nervous about singing it. And then that was just honestly Norman going, ‘Oh, let's try that.’ And when that came, it was great.”
While we can’t reveal what Reedus will be singing, Daryl Dixon is a show that has already proven it will pay the hefty music licensing fee to get the prefect song at the perfect moment, as evidenced by the usage of U2’s “Second” at the very end of season 1 as Daryl was stuck between the boat waiting to bring him back home to America and the young boy that needed him to stay in France.
“We had U2 in season 1, and we have this big one in season 2,” Zabel says. “We pick our moments, as you can imagine, because we can't afford to do it every episode, but when we do it, we try to make it count. And this certainly counted.”
So what musical drops might we be hearing in season 3 of Daryl Dixon, which is currently filming in Madrid? “We might have to have little Miles Davis [in] season 3,” Zabel says.
Let’s hope Reedus can figure out a way to sing over that.
