The Walking Dead (franchise)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Walking Dead franchise begins with a sheriff's deputy named Rick Grimes waking from a coma into a world overrun by the undead. That single awakening has since multiplied into something far larger than one man's fight to protect his family and friends. The franchise now includes seven live-action television series, eight web series, novels, video games and other media, all set in one shared universe. The scale raises real questions. How does a comic book about a zombie apocalypse grow into an entire fictional world? Why did some of its spinoffs change shape before they reached the screen? And what does a franchise do when its original lead walks away?

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• 2. From Comic To Screen

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  In January 2010, the cable network AMC ordered a pilot based on the comic book of the same name, developed by Frank Darabont and Gale Anne Hurd. Andrew Lincoln was cast as Rick Grimes. The series premiered on the 31st of October 2010.

  It soon became known as AMC's flagship series and as a ratings juggernaut. Starting with its third season, it drew more viewers aged 18 to 49 than any other cable or broadcast series. Critics received it positively.

  Walkers is the name the survivors use for the undead, and they are the number one threat. Yet other people create conflict too. Surviving humans form groups and communities with their own laws and morals, and those codes sometimes collide in open hostility.

  The original series ran from 2010 to 2022, and every television series in the franchise airs on AMC and AMC+. The comic book's own creator, Robert Kirkman, would help launch the next series.

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• 3. A Companion Series

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  In September 2013, Kirkman, Hurd and Dave Alpert were named as creators of a companion series with an entirely new set of characters. It was called Fear the Walking Dead. AMC committed to a two-season broadcast by March 2015, and the show premiered on the 23rd of August 2015.

  The story starts at the onset of the apocalypse. Its characters escape Los Angeles while the military tries to quarantine the city. They then seek refuge along the west coast of the United States and Mexico.

  Fear the Walking Dead began as a prequel. Then Lennie James joined the cast, reprising his role as Morgan Jones from the original series, and the two shows ran concurrently. His arrival was the first crossover in the franchise. Morgan joined after the events of the eighth season of The Walking Dead.

  A second crossover came in 2019, when Austin Amelio brought the reformed Savior Dwight into the fifth season. The series ended on the 19th of November 2023, after its eighth and final season.

  In July 2018, Scott M. Gimple used San Diego Comic-Con to announce a second spinoff.

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• 4. New Faces, New Format

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  Monument was the working title, and the show received a 10-episode order. It was later retitled The Walking Dead: World Beyond. In April 2019, AMC officially ordered it as a limited series created by Gimple and Matthew Negrete.

  Its heroes are the first generation of children to grow up during the apocalypse, and they call themselves Endlings. They know how to survive if they meet zombies. But they were raised behind walls and have never truly lived through survival.

  Production began in July 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. Jordan Vogt-Roberts was first attached to direct the pilot. Magnus Martens took over because the series changed direction.

  The cast included Aliyah Royale, Alexa Mansour, Annet Mahendru, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston, Nico Tortorella and Julia Ormond. The series premiered on the 4th of October 2020 and ended on the 5th of December 2021, after two seasons. Its second season delivered the franchise's third crossover, with Pollyanna McIntosh returning as Jadis.

  In September 2020, Gimple said an anthology series was in the works. It was greenlit in October 2021 as Tales of the Walking Dead. Six episodes aired between the 14th of August and the 18th of September 2022. Channing Powell, who had written for both earlier shows, served as showrunner. Each episode stands alone and mixes new characters with existing ones.

  The year of that anthology also brought the announcement of several more spinoffs, and these would reach back to familiar faces.

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• 5. Films Become Miniseries

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  In November 2018, Gimple announced that a trilogy of films about Rick was in development at AMC Original Films, with Lincoln returning. Lincoln had left the main show during its ninth season. Danai Gurira as Michonne and Pollyanna McIntosh as Jadis, also called Anne, were slated to star as well. The first film was set to begin production in 2019.

  Gimple said the films would not be extended episodes, and they would not adapt the comic books. Kirkman would be heavily involved in their development. Universal Pictures was slated to release them in theaters.

  At the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, the plan changed. The three films were reworked into a six-episode miniseries starring Lincoln and Gurira. It was originally entitled Rick & Michonne and became The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.

  Filming began in January 2023. Gurira confirmed that she would write for the series and be credited as a co-creator alongside Gimple. The story takes place after the fifth episode of the ninth season, "What Comes After," and the thirteenth episode of the tenth season, "What We Become." It is described as an "epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world."

  The miniseries premiered on the 25th of February 2024 and concluded Rick and Michonne's storyline. Other returning characters were getting their own series too, starting with a pair set in Manhattan.

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• 6. Returning Survivors

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  In March 2022, AMC greenlit Isle of the Dead, starring Lauren Cohan as Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. The two also serve as executive producers, alongside Eli Jorné, who is showrunner. The story is set in Manhattan. In August 2022 the show was retitled The Walking Dead: Dead City. It premiered on the 18th of June 2023 and was renewed for a second season in July 2023.

  The Daryl Dixon spinoff took a more winding route. In September 2020, Angela Kang and Gimple were announced as creators of a series starring Norman Reedus as Daryl and Melissa McBride as Carol. It was planned to air in 2023, after the eleventh season of the main show.

  In April 2022, the project was retooled to focus entirely on Daryl, and McBride departed. The series is set in Europe, and filming there in mid-2022 would have been logistically untenable for her. David Zabel became showrunner in place of Kang.

  The title Daryl Dixon was revealed in October 2022, and the series premiered on the 10th of September 2023. In July 2023, it was renewed for a second season, with McBride joining as a series regular. A third season followed in July 2024.

  In a November 2022 interview with AMC, Gimple said more spinoffs were still to come. By April 2023, the next title had arrived: More Tales from the Walking Dead Universe.

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• 7. Web Series

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  Torn Apart was a six-episode web series from 2011, set before the first season of the original show. Cold Storage followed in 2012 with four episodes, and The Oath arrived in 2013 with three. Red Machete ran six episodes and was written by Nick Bernardone. It covers the whole apocalypse, mainly through and after the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth seasons of the main series.

  Fear the Walking Dead has its own set. Flight 462 runs sixteen episodes, written by Lauren Signorino and Michael Zunic. It takes place during the third episode of the first season. Passage also has sixteen episodes and is set before the third season.

  Michael Alaimo and Jacob Pinion wrote The Althea Tapes, six episodes set before the fourth season and before the second half of the fifth. Pinion also wrote Dead in the Water, six episodes released in 2022 and set before the sixth season.

  Beyond these short series, the franchise also reached into video games, beginning with a tactics game released on iOS in 2012.

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• 8. Beyond The Screen

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  Between 2012 and 2019, Telltale Games released an episodic graphic adventure series set in the comic book universe. It centers on the original characters Clementine and Lee Everett, voiced by Melissa Hutchison and Dave Fennoy. A spin-off game about Michonne followed in 2016.

  The tactics game from 2012 was The Walking Dead: Assault, developed by Gamagio. It reached Android in 2013 and is no longer available. On the 19th of March 2013, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct came out in North America. This first-person shooter serves as a prequel to the television series and follows Daryl Dixon and Merle Dixon. Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker reprised their roles for the likeness and voices.

  In November 2018, Overkill's The Walking Dead launched on PC. It follows four characters in post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C., and planned console ports were cancelled shortly afterward. Skybound Entertainment released the virtual reality game Saints & Sinners on the 23rd of January 2020. Its sequel, Chapter 2: Retribution, arrived in December 2022 on Meta Quest 2. On the 17th of November 2023, GameMill Entertainment released The Walking Dead: Destinies. It lets players reshape the first four seasons of the main series, deciding who lives and who dies.

  A tabletop role-playing game also exists, published by Free League Publishing and built on the Year Zero Engine.

  Merchandise followed too. McFarlane Toys made comic book action figures for September 2011, with television figures, including a dismemberable walker, set for November 2011. Titan Magazines has published The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine since October 2012. Stern Pinball built a physical pinball table, and Zen Studios made a virtual one based on the first Telltale season.

  At Thorpe Park in the United Kingdom, a redesigned ride opened in March 2018 as The Walking Dead: The Ride, part of the Year of The Walking Dead. The franchise now had a track people could actually ride.

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