Ivy creeping down the facades of buildings, dozens of abandoned and rusty vehicles and an inappropriate silence in the neighborhood have invaded the frenetic heart of Madrid, a few steps from the Four Seasons Hotel. The capital is devastated these days by a zombie apocalypse. And no, the world as we know it has no end, but, to the surprise of passers-by, the center hosts the filming of the third season of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon”, the “spin off” of one of the most successful television series of the century. Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride, the stars of this American production, arouse passions wherever they set foot and fans did not miss this unique opportunity to greet these actors.
The arrival in Spain of the protagonists, the trailers with the entire set and, above all, the undead was a secret that did not escape the most loyal followers. Reedus himself announced through a publication in X that he would be happy to see his followers in Spain. “We don’t have this so close every day, it is an opportunity that we cannot miss,” says Caty, who held this Wednesday at the Palacio de la Trinidad, in the Salamanca neighborhood, early in the morning with the intention of meeting his television idols.
The 23-year-old arrived in Madrid at 10 a.m. with her friend Jony equipped with bottles of water, supplies for the day, funko pops, notebooks and pens to write autographs. When they saw on Twitter and TikTok that the cast of the series was a few hours from home, it was clear to them. “I took advantage of the fact that I had a day off coming up,” Caty, who will spend the night at a friend’s house and will return to Cantabria this Thursday, tells the newspaper.
This Madrid gem near Avenida de América can be seen in the third season, which will air in 2025 and which encompasses the return journey of the character that gives its name to this production and Carol Peletier to find their loved ones. The production of these chapters, which take place years after “The Walking Dead”, is based in Madrid, from where they will travel to other autonomous communities such as Galicia, Aragon, Catalonia or the Valencian Community, “which will seek to offer a new and unique backdrop for the post-apocalyptic world”, they emphasize from the American producer and distributor AMC Networks.
The universe of the undead of this series has accompanied Raquel during the pandemic after the insistence of her best friend who recommended it to her. Doing a shooting near her home is something “very exciting” for her. The Madrilenian has managed to get closer Norman Reeduswhich inspired one of his tattoos, on several occasions during his stay in Madrid and after several mornings that allowed him to combine work. The nervousness of being close to the actors of this series was such that these days there have been some “stampedes” of fans who could not miss this historical image.
The central Albarán street was the one that most attracted the attention of the fans. The typical London telephone boxes were scattered around the area, the vehicles with yellow license plates and the bus stops surprised tourists, neighbors and fans of the series. “I had wanted to experience something like this for a long time,” says Raquel.
However, the Madrid Palace or the Casa de Campo are other points of the city where the sequences of this series were filmed, according to the followers who shared each of the settings through social networks.
Filming permit
Madrid Film Office, the audiovisual office of Madrid City Hall which depends on the Department of Tourism and which accompanies companies and professionals who choose the capital to carry out their projects, has played a key role both in this production and in other productions that have passed through the city. “They asked us for a location near the Four Seasons,” they emphasize from this intermediate municipal service, since the person who grants the permits is the Environment and Mobility Area of the Madrid City Council. They immediately got to work.
Once the recording is authorized, residents and businesses located around the affected locations are informed of the outages. Thus, on August 16, a sign was placed on Albarán Street announcing the reservation of the space for the filming of “The Walking Dead” from August 21 to 26. The same sign warns that any vehicle found in this space at the time of the work “will be evacuated by crane.”
Screen tourism
This post-apocalyptic “spin-off” joins the long list of feature films and television series that have chosen the streets of the capital as their setting in recent years. “La casa de papel”, which was developed by the Bank of Spain and the National Mint and Stamp Factory; “Las galles del cable”, in the Las Letras and La Latina neighborhoods; or “Paquita Salas”, which had its office in the Plaza de la Luna, are some of the productions located in the municipality. Directors such as Pedro Almodóvar and Álex de la Iglesia have also taken advantage of the capital to make their feature films.
Screen tourism exists and Madrid is aware that it must take advantage of it, since eighty million travelers choose a destination for their vacations thanks to the audiovisual content they consume.
In 2023, Madrid hosted more than 930 projects that carried out medium and large-scale filming on public roads, 8% more than the previous year, and hosted 41 films and 55 series. The Filming Authorization Office processed 11,133 applications last year, 39% of which were permits with space occupation, intended for medium and large teams.
However, capital is not the only one seeking to exploit its potential. It should not be forgotten that Wes Anderson chose Chinchón and Colmenar de la Oreja to recreate the Arizona desert in “Asteroid City”. Thus, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Community of Madrid, Mariano de Paco Serrano, visited the headquarters of TelevisaUnivision, the leading Spanish-language media and content company in the world, at the beginning of July, with the intention of promoting the region as a privileged destination for film shoots and audiovisual projects.
