The latest entry in the growing Walking Dead franchise, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, was supposed to premiere in April until the real world went through a life-altering event of its own. Despite the ongoing challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, however, the powers that be at AMC have decided the zombie apocalypse must go on, and World Beyond puts viewers right in the middle of it. Well sort of. Actually, while the teens at the heart of the show have grown up after the flesh-eating dead arose, they’ve lived fairly sheltered lives. This has made the challenges to survival in their world more a matter of academic knowledge than a visceral life-or-death struggle, a reality that both sets the show apart from its predecessors -- flagship series The Walking Dead and first spinoff Fear the Walking Dead -- and also makes the stakes feel significantly lower.
The characters at the heart of the story are growing up in a world that’s fundamentally changed, but not nearly as much as it did for the characters on the other shows. This is exemplified by over-achiever Iris (Aliyah Royale), the president of her high-school class and resident good girl, who does everything she can to be there for whoever needs her -- by volunteering and taking AP classes instead of pursuing her love of art. On the other side of the coin is her sister Hope (Alexa Mansour), who has a giant chip on her shoulder and spends her time making vast quantities of alcohol in violation of the community’s rules. Both girls are haunted by what happened the night the zombie apocalypse started 10 years earlier when they also lost their mother, but neither are willing to talk about it.
That is, until their insular community in Omaha, Nebraska is visited by a contingent from one of the other two communities they’ve formed an alliance with, the Civic Republic. This contingent arrives in a helicopter with a symbol that will set off alarm bells for existing Dead fans, alarms that will get louder when the leader of the group, Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Koblek (Julia Ormand), identifies herself as CRM, the Civic Republic Military, the mysterious organization that is likely responsible for Rick Grimes’ disappearance in the ninth season of The Walking Dead. After the sisters’ father left to work on a cure for the zombie plague in the Civic Republic, Hope came to distrust these supposed allies. After all, they have no idea where in the world their father is and he’s not permitted to communicate with them while he’s gone. Meanwhile, Iris tries to put a happy face on things, but the truth is she doesn’t trust the Civic Republic much more than Hope does.
To ease their minds, the girls' father has found a way to secretly send brief faxes to the pair, so when his latest message indicates he may be in danger, the sisters are understandably worried. Hope is resigned to the fact that there’s nothing they can do to help. Instead, it's Iris who surprisingly comes to the conclusion they should leave the safety of Omaha to find and rescue their father, an impulsive decision prompted by her therapist's advice to start living for herself. And after the CRM’s Lieutenant Colonel attempts to win the sisters' trust by giving them a ballpark idea of where their father is, they at least have an idea of where to go.
They are joined on their quest by Elton (Nicolas Cantu), a curious teen who's regularly been wandering outside the walls of their community to explore what the world has become, and Silas (Hal Cumpston), a recent arrival to Omaha whose dark past has made him an outcast. Hot on their trail is the man that’s been acting as the sisters' guardian in their father’s absence, Felix (Nico Tortorella), and Huck (Annet Mahendru), who’s been training Hope to fight the "empties."
While the premiere spends most of its time establishing this corner of The Walking Dead universe and setting up Iris and Hope's reasons for taking off, for longtime fans, the tidbits of information about CRM will be the most tantalizing part of the show. And the episode doubles down on this by ending on a shocking cliffhanger that will leave fans clamoring to see more of Elizabeth and the rest of CRM.
However, the second episode (only the first two of Season 1's 10 episodes were made available for review) focuses entirely on the beginnings of the teens' journey and Felix and Huck's pursuit. This is where the show starts to feel a little thin. After 10 years watching the characters on the main show traipse through wide swathes of the South while attempting to dodge the threat of both zombies and suspicious people, watching the group of teens do the same feels a little too familiar. On top of that, the characters' complete lack of real-world zombie-killing experience means they can barely defend themselves against the individual zombies they encounter here and there. It's understandable, but so reminiscent of the learning curves dealt with by previous shows' characters that it's only kind of interesting.
Fans invested in The Walking Dead when it debuted because its depiction of its characters' adjustment to the post-apocalypse let them imagine what they would do in the same situation. It made it easy to sympathize with the survivors. World Beyond's setting and characters don't offer the same experience. As a result, the show isn't nearly as engrossing. Despite its efforts to convince viewers otherwise, Iris' desire to get to her father seems foolish -- what exactly will she do if she manages to reach him? And both the kids and the show treat their quest as a journey of self-discovery instead of the dangerous undertaking it is.
Of course, while it's not an out-of-the-gate success, it would be a mistake to completely dismiss World Beyond. As their journey continues and we learn more about them, the teens' adventures in zombie-land may become more compelling. Right now, however, Carl's and Judith's coming-of-age stories on the flagship series have been far more involving, and CRM remains the most fascinating part of this newest spinoff. Nonetheless, with a plan for a two-season story in place and practical lessons for the characters to quickly learn, the show has the potential to grow into itself, just like the teens at its center.
Created by Scott Gimple, Robert Kirkman and Matt Negrete, The Walking Dead: World Beyond stars Aliyah Royale, Alexa Mansour, Annet Mahendru, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston, Nico Tortorella and Julia Ormand. The series debuts Oct. 4 at 10 p.m. ET on AMC.