The Walking Dead is one of the most iconic shows in the Zombie genre. For ten years, the main series gave fans a plethora of horrific and traumatic memories that many talk about even today. I still get mad when I think about Glenn, but time goes on, and we’re in a whole new era now. With such a strong legacy, it’s no wonder the creative minds behind it made the decision to expand the universe with spinoff shows. Like the Walkers themselves, it turns out The Walking Dead won’t die so easily.
Maybe you’ve been an avid fan for years, maybe you stopped watching after season 7, episode 1 like most people, or maybe you’ve never seen a single episode but want to start. Either way, if you’re thinking of diving into the new content, hold up and read this article first as the order can be a little confusing. There are plot threads and characters who jump between the different shows, so if you don’t know what you’re doing you’ll end up with a headache trying to piece it all together. Here is the best way to watch all the spinoffs in order.
Fear the Walking Dead
So let’s start with the earliest story chronologically. This show technically starts before the zombie apocalypse (as did the original series for about five minutes), but then it jumps forward about a month. The premise of this show was initially to tell a story in the early days of the outbreak, however, after a few seasons, it inevitably catches up with its mother show. The third season ends roughly a few weeks after Rick would have awoken from his coma.
Season 4 gives us a massive time skip as it jumps forward two years. At this point, the story begins to tie in with The Walking Dead which is at the end of its eighth season with Negan already defeated. Thanks to the skip, characters from Fear TWD are now in roughly the same time period. Morgan Jones (Lennie James) also hops from the main series to lead the group of ragtag survivors in the spinoff.
From there, the show pretty much runs alongside The Walking Dead, going as far as to match the time jumps and taking the story all the way up to 2020, about 10 years after the zombie outbreak.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond
The second spinoff begins the story ten years after the world was first introduced to the flesh-eating undead. This puts it at around the time The Walking Dead and Fear TWD were ending their long-running stories. The show centers on a group of teenagers who were raised after the walker apocalypse and as such it’s the only life they know.
World Beyond was only commissioned for a two-season run and the second season follows directly from the first. The events depicted all occur within about six weeks and take place during, or just after, the end of the original series.
However, one important detail to note is that we do learn of Rick Grimes’s fate in the second season. After blowing up the bridge to save his community in season 9, Rick disappeared without a trace. World Beyond revealed that he had been taken to a walker culling facility and put to work. Although we never actually see him make an appearance.
The Walking Dead: Dead City
The first of the spinoffs to actually focus on a couple of the main characters from the original show. Dead City takes place an unspecified number of years after The Walking Dead’s finale. We see Maggie and Negan as they journey through what used to be New York working together to track down Maggie’s missing son.
The show surprised many who had already written it off as just another of the many many spinoffs that have come out since the original’s finale. However, it’s a pretty solid continuation of these two characters’ stories, with some pretty gory moments too, and lucky for us, it’s already been renewed for a second season.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
While the new series isn’t set to premiere until September, we already know that the plot will follow Daryl, who somehow ends up in France (ok?). Oh, and Daryl doesn’t know how he ended up in France either, so he’s just as confused as we are. This plot could literally go anywhere. It kind of sounds like The Hangover meets The Walking Dead.
Because of the scant details surrounding this show, we don’t really know when it’s set. Definitely after the main series, but whether it’s before, during, or after Dead City remains to be seen. Judging by how the franchise operates, it will likely be during, but who knows.
The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne
We know even less about this one as the show isn’t set to premiere until sometime in 2024. But much like the last two, we know it will continue the trend of following main characters from the OG show after the finale. The focus will be on Rick and Michonne finally reuniting after years apart and continuing their adventures together.
Tales of the Walking Dead
Technically, it doesn’t matter when you watch this one as it’s an anthology series. Initially premiering in 2022, each of the six episodes gives us a different story from a different time period during the outbreak.
There’s not too much to find by way of connecting these characters to those from the other shows. Although we do get the backstory for Alpha (Samantha Morton) during episode three. It’s clear that the goal of Tales of the Walking Dead is more to tell several self-contained stories rather than focusing on an overarching plotline.
More Tales of the Walking Dead
Once again, this series will likely continue in the same vein as Tales of the Walking Dead with self-contained, smaller, stories. That being said, fans are hopeful we’ll get to see more episodes like Alpha’s origin story in the upcoming show. Whether or not we will, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Details are very sparse regarding this project, as it was only announced back in April. However, just like the previous series, you can probably watch this show at any point chronologically due to it being an anthology.
There will probably be more
Let’s face it, The Walking Dead just will not die. Although its popularity has waned in recent years, there is still quite a strong and devoted fan base there. There are still stories to be told and in all honesty, it wouldn’t be a surprise to find out that AMC has even more new spinoffs in the works. Expect this list to grow and change as time goes on.
