When it comes to long-lasting horror television, the undisputed king of the jungle (or whatever woodsy area) is definitely The Walking Dead franchise, which has been piling up bodies and spinoffs at AMC since October 2010. (FX’s American Horror Story, which arrived in 2011, is the clear silver medalist.) The threat of the undead is rearing its rotting head anew with The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, which welcomes back Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira’s respective fan faves Rick and Michonne. They’ve come a long way, which is why we’re looking back at all the TWD spinoffs that have expanded this particular post-apocalypse.
It’s almost hard to believe TV viewers have been rallying for Team Family for nearly 15 years, and even longer for fans of Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Tony Moore’s comic book series. So in honor of the remnants of the Ricktatorship, let’s hop on the back of an unbitten horse and ride through a timeline of spinoffs in the order of their arrival as we await even more upcoming Walking Dead shows.
Torn Apart And Other Web Series (2011-2017)
Nearly a year after The Walking Dead’s wildly successful debut on AMC, following the headline-making firing of co-developer Frank Darabont, executive producer and special effects mastermind Greg Nicotero delivered the first of four short-form webisode spinoffs that helped to expand the universe in bloody, bite-sized morsels. Check out all four of the Internet-based spinoffs below.
- Torn Apart (2011): The six-part project told the story of Hannah, perhaps better known as the "Bicycle Girl" walker from The Walking Dead's series premiere, whom Rick puts out of her undead misery.
- Cold Storage (2012): Criminal Minds vet Josh Stewart starred in this four-part micro-series about Atlanta survivors dealing with a sadistic former co-worker.
- The Oath (2013): This three-ep tale is essentially an origin story for the iconic "Don't Open, Dead Inside" message that has served as a go-to visual for The Walking Dead since the earliest days.
- Red Hatchet (2017-18): The fourth and final web-based spinoff (so far) shifted its release strategy to dropping its six installments across a six-month span as it gave viewers the story behind Rick Grimes' bladed weapon of choice.
It's interesting to think that these TWD spinoffs began in the early days of scripted projects made solely for streaming, with that word not yet taking over pop culture habits. The first three all aired before the November 2013 debut of Netflix's game-changing drama House of Cards.
Fear The Walking Dead (2015-2023)
Partially due to the success of its web series, AMC pushed forward in 2013 on a full-fledged spinoff series meant to initially put more focus on the earliest days of the outbreak that broke the world. Fear the Walking Dead’s west-coast apocalypse arrived in August 2015, initially fronted by the starring quartet of Kim Dickens, Alicia Debnam-Carey, Frank Dillane and Cliff Curtis.
That lineup, as well as FTWD’s showrunner, went through quite a few changes in the first three prequelized years, with Season 4 serving as a soft reboot thanks to the arrivals of Walking Dead vet Lennie James as Morgan Jones and then-new showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, each of whom would remain with the spinoff until the conclusion of the eighth and final season.
The later seasons also shifted the timeline forward so that the story was more or less concurrent with the flagship drama, with various connecting story elements such as the reunion between Austin Amelio and Christine Evangelista’s Dwight and Sherry, as well as the CRM group and their helicopters.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020-2021)
In 2019, the Walking Dead franchise’s Chief Content Officer Scott Gimple announced the next spinoff would be The Walking Dead: World Beyond, which brought a few changes to the spinoff mold. First, the storyline was largely focused on a group of teens who spent the bulk of the apocalypse in highly secured areas without the need for boosting their survival skills. Until the point when they did need such tactics, of course.
With a larger focus on the CRM group, TWD: World Beyond was also unique for being conceived as a two-season story, rather than anything more extended. While not critically acclaimed, the series was lauded for its talented cast and for a few of the big reveals peppered throughout, such as the confirmation of faster and stronger walkers in different parts of the world.
Tales Of The Walking Dead (2022)
Tales of the Walking Dead is something of a mega-expansion of the webisode spinoffs, in that it went the anthology route where each episode offers up new characters and chapters of the post-apocalypse, sometimes with important connections to the core story. The six-episode experiment was viewed as being uneven, but still celebrated for bringing a wider variety of familiar faces into this world, even if only for a single episode at a time, such as Terry Crews, Parker Posey, Olivia Munn, Anthony Edwards, Jesse T. Usher and more.
As well, Tales of the Walking Dead featured an entire episode focused on Samantha Morton in her pre-Alpha days as Dee, whose attempts to protect her daughter while aboard a steamboat turn murderous. It also shows viewers how she took over as leader of the Whisperers in the aftermath.
The Walking Dead: Dead City (2023-?)
In March 2022, many months before The Walking Dead was set to close out its eleventh and final season, AMC ordered up the then-titled spinoff Isle of the Dead, which sparked some ire for confirming so early that Lauren Cohen’s Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan would survive the flagship’s run. With Eli Jorné as its showrunner, the project changed its official title later that same year to The Walking Dead: Dead City, with the island of Manhattan as the titular location.
The spinoff debuted in June 2023 to some acclaim and some questions about Maggie and Negan’s continued relationship despite him being responsible for her biggest trauma. Sure enough, that connection will continue to sprout, as AMC ordered up Season 2 two days before the surprise-filled Season 1 finale.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023-?)
AMC and Scott Gimple first went to bat with the concept of a Daryl Dixon spinoff all the way back in September 2020, two years before the mothership show’s conclusion, with the idea at the time being that Norman Reedus would be joined by Melissa McBride as fellow fan-fave Carol. That idea stuck until McBride exited the project unexpectedly in April 2022, followed by a showrunner change and a new Daryl-centric title and story.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premiered at last in September 2023, three years after it was first announced, and largely won over critics with its change in locations and atmosphere. Before that premiere happened, though, AMC confirmed Season 2 was happening, and later confirmed McBride is officially back in the saddle for the subtitled season “The Book of Carol.” What’s more, Scott Gimple already spilled the beans in February 2024 that Season 3 is also on the way.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (2023-?)
Ever since the first moments that followed Andrew Lincoln’s final episode of The Walking Dead proper back in 2018 during Season 9, fans have clamored for the comic book hero’s return to the small screen. That group demand only grew louder when Danai Gurira bowed out of the show as Michonne, and wishes were finally granted in July 2022 when Scott Gimple rocked the SDCC crowd with the confirmation of Lincoln and Gurira’s returns for what would eventually be titled The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
Criticisms were mixed in reviews the season’s episodes, but such opinions won’t stop this franchise’s fanbase from welcoming these two characters back with open arms. At this point, it’s unclear whether or not this spinoff will survive to a second season, but it’s highly likely.
Future Walking Dead Spinoffs
For many fans, the concept of a Rick and Michonne spinoff is the logical conclusion for The Walking Dead’s live-action universe, even with all the changes made from the comic book source material. But it likely won’t stop network execs from figuring out ways to keep the outbreak’s threat strong for many years to come.
To date, however, the only potential future project of note would be a second anthologized season of one-off adventures. In April 2023, AMC gave a greenlight to the tentatively titled More Tales from the TWDU, with Scott Gimple overseeing the project’s six-episode plan.
In February 2024, Gimple stoked the flames a bit harder by teasing his overarching dreams of merging the Walking Dead universe’s stories together, but it sounds like something that will take a lot of additional conversations and red tape before more news will be revealed.
While waiting to see where the undead stories will go next, fans can find The Walking Dead streaming in full with a Netflix subscription.
