If the sixteen seasons of the Walking Dead world is too much for you, then this could be the show for you.
The Walking Dead can seem very daunting from the outside in.
Not only does the main show already have ten seasons, but the spin-off Fear The Walking Dead has ramped up six. There is the upcoming movie focusing on one of the leading characters. There are years of deaths and plot twists and zombie apocalypse annihilation.
It is, in short, a lot.
For anyone who has missed out on the main shows and just can’t seem to work up the energy to commit to a ten-seasons-and-more long term relationship, then The Walking Dead: World Beyond might just be the show for you, not least because before it even began, producers confirmed that it would only last two seasons.
Additionally, despite being set in the same zombie apocalypse as the original show, it has no other real ties to The Walking Dead. Setting the drama ten years on from “the day the sky fell”, we’ve got brand new characters and settings and trials and tribulations. It is the best way in for newbies to the series; test this out, and if you dig it, then maybe go back and dive into the other, pre-existing seasons.
Of course fans of the original show will want to sink their teeth into the spin-off without much prompting from us, and they’ll be fully on board in following the story of Iris (Aliyah Royale) and Hope (Alexa Mansour), as they decide to leave the relative safety of a walled-off city in search of their missing scientist father.
Two more teens from the city, Silas (Hal Cumpston) and Elton (Nicolas Cantu), join them on their crusade, and they’re closely pursued by city security officers Huck (Annet Mahendru) and Felix (Nico Tortorella), with potentially shady new government head Elizabeth (90s icon Julia Ormond) keeping a close eye on everything.
With the refocus on both a younger set of leads and a potentially more optimistic outlook than you’d be used to on The Walking Dead, the show doesn’t shy away at all from the usual gore and horror. The episodes shown to press, feature some fantastic set-pieces (directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the guy behind the massively entertaining Kong: Skull Island), including one involving a recently crashed airplane in a major American city.
While the plots themselves probably won’t add anything new to veterans of the show, the new setting and characters might do enough to jolt up some interest, and the short-term run of the show could be enough to entice the zombie amateurs. The performances and writing are of a high enough standard to be entertaining, even if it seems unlikely – at least at this very early stage – to be considered particularly memorable.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond will premiere on Prime Video from Friday, October 2, and you can check out the trailer for the show right here:
