The Walking Dead: Dead City (we will simply call it Dead City) is finally here to further expand this universe. This spinoff series gets into action quickly with Maggie tracking down Negan just outside of New York City. As we already knew, Maggie needs Negan’s help to locate her son Hershel. He was taken by a new villain called the Croat (Željko Ivanek). The trailer revealed that the Croat has a connection to Negan. Many fans (including me!) suspected the Croat was a former Savior who eventually formed his own version of the Sanctuary… and we were right. Here’s what we know about the Croat and what he’s up to on The Walking Dead: Dead City so far.
Who Is the Croat and What Is His Connection to Negan?
In Dead City’s debut episode, Maggie finds Negan, who is traveling with Ginny, a kid whose trauma has rendered her silent. We know that a couple of years have passed in this universe, so there are some gaps that the show will eventually explain. Negan wants to know why she’s stalking him and Maggie says she needs his help with finding and defeating the Croat. Negan pretends to not know him at first. That is, until Maggie says that the Croat’s group came into her community and began to do that famous Savior whistle.
Negan admits that the Croat was “an exceptionally insane son of a b**ch” and that Hershel is probably already dead. Maggie insists that he must help her because he still owes her (does he, though?) and reminds Negan that he’s a wanted man on the run with nowhere to go. Negan agrees to help her find the Croat but only because Maggie promises Ginny refuge and education in a safe community. After watching Negan and Maggie running from falling walker bodies, massive bugs, and a ruthless Marshall (Gaius Charles), we meet the Croat himself.
At first glance, he looks more like someone’s grandfather than a ruthless leader. He confronts a bound Hershel, asking him what he knows about Negan. Hershel smart mouths him and The Croat prepares to torture him with a scythe-like instrument. But a worker interrupts him and his attention turns to an ill-fated prison escapee.
The Croat and His Group in The Walking Dead: Dead City, Explained
Right now, we know very little about the Croat and even less about his collective. We don’t even have a clear name for this group yet. The credits do list the guy that came into the room when he was with Herschel as a “Buraz underling.” The word buraz means brother in Croatian (the obvious reference for the Croat’s name), so having a group with that name would make sense. The Croat certainly wasn’t one of Negan’s main men during the time that Rick and company dealt with his wrath. So, at some point, we can assume that the Croat split from the Saviors. When he left, perhaps he took a few others with him to head north. But, his introduction truly speaks to the ripple effect that a single person can have in this world. It is very telling for the Croat and his group to do that Savior whistle years after Negan’s reign.
In a sense, this guy is a monster that is partially of Negan’s own creation. It is obvious he still subscribes to his conquering mindset. And if Negan—a man who bashed two people’s skulls to pulp with a barbed wire bat—thinks the Croat is a psychopath, then that is making a huge statement about what they are facing. Let’s see where Dead City takes us on this quest to save Hershel.
