The Future of The Walking Dead

 

We've all been theorizing on how the world of The Walking Dead would continue after the main show. For a while, I thought I had it all figured out. That being said The Ones Who Live completely changed that. Then after the airing of the second season of Daryl Dixon, more questions have been raised yet again.

I had imagined that we would see all our characters from all shows combine and choose a side. One side being led by General Michael Mercer and the other being led by Major General Jonathan Beale. However, Rick and Michonne pretty much took down the CRM. Beale, Throne, Jadis, and Okafor are all dead. Elizabeth Kublek was imprisoned for treason. The Civic Republic even decided to help communities and change their symbol to a circle. Will the CRM continue to be a threat?

Beale mentions sleeper agents all across the country and the globe. We also know the staggering amount of people, that being said, how many truly knew about the real plans of the CRM higher ups? Were these nuggets dropped to plant seeds, or are we truly closing the door on the CRM? There is one thing in World Beyond that does have me thinking we may not be quite done yet. 

Mason Beale was introduced in The Walking Dead: World Beyond. He was completely absent from the events of The Ones Who Live, there wasn't even a mention of him. That being said, many have begun to theorize about his potential revenge. Could they adapt one of the final stories from the comics, being that of Sebastian Milton killing Rick Grimes, but in this case, substituting Sebastian with Mason. It would make sense that Mason would want revenge being that Rick murdered his father. 

So what about these sleeper agents? Have we met any of them? Who should we be looking at with a raised eyebrow? @twalkingdworld on Twitter mentions that he is suspicious of characters like Lance Hornsby and Virginia from Fear the Walking Dead. Virginia was definitely an interesting character with interesting motives, we know the CRM had touched down in Texas, could she have been working as a secret agent for them? Could she have been building towards a CRM run future? Many had become suspicious of Lance due to some of the comments he made during his final episodes on the flagship show. Hornsby mentions that if something happens to him, Commonwealth alliances are likely going to become an issue. What does that cryptic wording mean? Hornsby and Roman Calhoun are both dead, but another ally's fate was left unresolved.

Eugene's catfish, Shira, was mysteriously absent from the last few episodes of The Walking Dead. She was still working for Lance and her partner Roman was killed and fed to walker Sebastian. We never find out what happened to this character. It's likely that she was imprisoned or killed in the final episodes of the main show, but the fact of the matter is, we simply do not know. The Walking Dead doesn't leave a lot of characters fates hanging in the balance, so it's possible she pops back up in the future.

I do want to add that footage of Tank Town (FTWD) and Outpost 22 (TWD) were shown when Beale is talking in the finale of The Ones Who Live, this checks out with the theories mentioned about Virginia and Lance Hornsby. Could Shira have gone to report back to these allies or be a sleeper agent? Or are we fully leaving the CRM behind. However there seems to be one more CRM lingering thread that Scott Gimple has promised an answer to. See this article by Cameron Bonomolo for the direct quote.

The PPP card has been one of the biggest mysteries in the world of The Walking Dead. First seen in season 7 episode 6 of the main show, "Swear", this card was found at the site of Heath's disappearance. Angela Kang confirmed that Jadis kidnapped Heath and traded him to the CRM, but beyond that, we have no idea what happened to this character. His absence from The Ones Who Live in any capacity definitely made it seem like this may be something they want us to forget, but the fans refuse to let it go. The next time we see the PPP card is in Tales of the Walking Dead episode 5 "Davon". Is this the same card, one just like it? Who knows? The only thing we did get in the way of PPP in The Ones Who Live was in the finale, when the words "PPP Exception" can be seen on the white board. As to what any of this means, none of us know, but hopefully we can find out in a future project. 

Let's leave the CRM alone for a bit. For all intents and purposes, the CRM has been disbanded. The Civic Republic seems to be something being used as an agent for good as we see at the end of The Ones Who Live. It still seems likely the plan is to push all of our characters from all of these shows back together again. After all, we see Rick and Michonne arrive back at the Commonwealth in the finale of The Ones Who Live. The final season of Fear the Walking Dead sees Dwight and Sherry heading back to take over the Sanctuary, and it also sees Morgan Jones and Mo making a journey back to find Rick. The season 2 finale of Daryl Dixon pushes Laurent and Ash on their journey to the Commonwealth, one that will seemingly take place offscreen. We have a second season of Dead City coming up, as well as a confirmed third season for Daryl Dixon, and a plan for a fourth. Tales of the Walking Dead is also confirmed to be returning in some form at some time. So all that being said, it could be a few years until we finally get our mega crossover, but they have definitely been pushing a lot of characters to that conclusion.

My next question is: are we done in France? We know the third season of Daryl Dixon will be set in Spain with almost an entirely new cast of characters. Isabelle, Sylvie, Emile, Genet, Jacinta, Losang, Anna, and many others were killed off during the second season of this show. Daryl, Carol, and Codron left on a journey together. While it seems likely that these three will appear in the third season (after all Codron may have disappeared but not died), it seems the rest of the supporting cast may be left in France. Sabine seemed likely to take over the Power of the Living, but would she really follow Daryl and Carol to Spain for revenge? It seems unlikely, they would have teased that. If they wanted that storyline to continue, they likely would have left Genet, Losang, or even Jacinta alive to follow them. Outside of that, we next have the survivors at Club Demimonde, but with the death of Anna Valery, it also seems a little unlikely that we will return to that location. The biggest hope for a return are the characters of Fallou and Akila. After all Fallou is a fan favorite character. Could he show up in Spain, or could we see a return to France before the end of the series? Something tells me the fan outcry for Fallou will have him return again before everything is said and done. Maybe he will find out what happened to Daryl and Carol and try to go forward to help them. 

Let's switch back to the United States where our other main storyline is taking place, New York City. I think this is the biggest wild card at the moment. After all it takes place 6 years after the ending of the main show. It seems likely that Rick, Michonne, Morgan, Dwight, Sherry, Ash, Laurent, and maybe even Daryl and Carol have found their way home by the time we pick up in this corner of the universe. So what seems likely to happen? We know we will be dealing with a gang war. The Dama is definitely an interesting character. Also with The Dama and the Croat being two of the only living antagonists we have left, could they be our major villains for whenever we reach this crossover. It seems unlikely to me. These characters seem like they will remain villains on Dead City, but I don't see them going on much past that. However it being so far ahead, could we see Maggie reach out to some of our other survivors for help? Possibly. I do think we need to see Annie and Joshua again before this series wrapped. Last we heard they were on their way to Missouri. Could we see them return in season 2? Hopefully. There is also the possibility of some other characters making their way to New York to either help Maggie or settle their score with Negan. Many have called for Lydia and Elijah to join the story, which I definitely think could help this show out. Another major thing fans have called for is the return of Dwight and Sherry here to finally confront Negan after all these years. This is something fans have been clamoring for for years, so I think it isn't out of the question. On Twitter (Or X, old habits die hard), Jeffrey Dean Morgan seemed to invite Alycia Debnam-Carey to join the cast of the show by saying "how do you feel about New York?". Fans would definitely love to see her reprise her role of Alicia Clark at some point in the future, but it being in this show seems somewhat unlikely, but crazier things have happened. Last we saw Alicia, she was heading to LA with Madison and Tracy, but this was around 6 years ago or so, so this could shift.  Lauren Cohan did mention they are setting up a story that could run for three, four, or five seasons. 

So if Daryl Dixon and Dead City are expected to continue on, can we expect any other spin-offs? There have definitely been some talks of other spin-offs? One with Victor Strand and his family, one that takes place in LA following the Clarks returning to help people, an Aaron and Gabriel show, a Commonwealth one? Who knows? Let me direct you to some questions that can be answered, but likely ignored, in the future...

• Where are Georgie and the twins? We know the got separated from Maggie, but they continue mentioning this group as late as 11x13 when Elijah mentions that she could be the one who sent Jesse.
• Where is Virgil? He disappears after 11x08 despite being left alive.
• Could the Whisperers return in some capacity? After all, we see a small group of them return in the show's final season where they reveal that Connie is alive.
• Could Winnie return? This was the only surviving child of Jocelyn's group after Michonne slaughtered the rest of the kids. 
• Could Elle and her group, The Nomads, return? This was the group that recruited Michonne in season 10, but fully appear in The Ones Who Live. This group as well as others like the new Sanctuary under the leadership of Dwight and Sherry and the Opium Poppy Fields from season 11 could be brought in as allies to the Commonwealth.
• Can the survivors of World Beyond now become allies now that Rick and Michonne have defeated the CRM?
• Will Morgan, Dwight, and Sherry try to reach out to their allies from Fear and find them now that they have these major communities on their side? Althea and Isabelle could finally come out of hiding. 

All of that out of the way, I want to really highlight where I think the direction of this universe is going. I think after the end of Daryl Dixon and Dead City (as well as what ever other spin-offs come out in the next few years), the main surviving characters of The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead World Beyond, Tales of the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead Dead City, and The Walking Dead The Ones Who Live will form together in one main series. This could act as some sort of season 12 for those of it clamoring for it. I think this show could run for somewhere around 5 seasons. This show would feature all of these characters and close up a lot of the aforementioned loose ends. I think this show would also kill off a lot of our mainstay characters that don't have any future in this universe, whether it be because the actors don't want to play these characters forever or the story needs them to. I've talked a lot about the universe leading up to this show, and I think it is, but I don't exactly think it'll be the end either, but I'll get there. This mega crossover show would bring all our survivors to one location and really finish a lot of these stories. It would give us reunions if they haven't happened yet. Things like Daryl and Rick, Negan and Rick, Negan and Dwight, Sherry and Negan, Morgan and Rick, Victor and Alicia, etc. The World Beyond survivors and Gabriel could find out about Jadis' death, etc etc. This would probably be the end for the majority of our characters. For example people like Danai Gurira and Colman Domingo are highly sought after talent at this point, this show could feature their deaths, giving them a chance to really give it their all one last time and say goodbye. I said I didn't think this show would be the end of this universe, so... What Comes After?

The Walking Dead: The Next Generation

The original ending for The Walking Dead featured a group of survivors looking to recruit survivors for their community. This group consisted of Judith, RJ, Gracie, Coco, and seemingly Ezra. I think this will be the future of The Walking Dead. A group of kids all grown up representing many of the other in universe characters. This would be set many years after all of the other spin-offs and could be the next show to hit a mark like 8 or 11 seasons like the original two shows. Whoever survives over the other spin-offs could cameo or be featured as mentors and just other survivors, but they wouldn't be the main focus. Who could this show follow? After all we have spent many years building this roster. I will put the name of the character and the ones they represent. In the representation case, this could be their biological parents, as well as the people who raised them, so you may see a handful of names for some characters.

• Judith Grimes - Rick, Michonne, Shane, and Lori
• RJ Grimes - Rick and Michonne
• Gracie - Aaron
• Coco - Rosita, Siddiq, and Gabriel
• Ezra - Jerry and Nabila
• Aliyah - Jerry and Nabila
• Mariam - Jerry and Nabila
• Hershel Rhee - Glenn and Maggie
• Joshua Smith - Negan and Annie
• Laurent - Daryl and Isabelle
• Adam Sutton - Gamma, Earl, Tammy, Alden, and Maggie
• Rosie Porter - Eugene and Maxxine
• Tracy Otto - Troy, Madison, and Alicia
• Laurent - Isabelle and Daryl
• Ginny - Negan 

These are just off the top of my head, and I could be missing a handful. It is also possible that characters like Princess and Mercer could have a kid before this happens, other Fear characters, etc. All of this are just my speculation on the future of the universe, but I want to hear from you, what do you think we are building to? Please share your thoughts and opinions!