WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2, Episode 1, "Konsekans," which aired Sunday on AMC.
At the end of The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 1, the show's core group of survivors split apart after a season together. This meant sisters Hope and Iris Bennett were in totally different places. The former went with the Civic Republic Military (CRM) in order to help her friends, while Iris stayed with Felix Carlucci and eventually met up with a group called the Perimeter. The first episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2 deals with the fallout from that finale -- and the truth about what happened to the Campus Colony results in Iris killing a CRM member.
CBR talked with The Walking Dead: World Beyond showrunner Matt Negrete about the events of the first episode. In the interview, Negrete talked about Hope and Iris' journeys, distinguishing Season 1 from Season 2 and more.
CBR: Coming off World Beyond Season 1, when I watched the premiere, it felt like there were some subtle changes to how you guys did the writing and filming. What did you want to tweak going from Season 1 into Season 2?
NEGRETE: The thing I'll say in terms of the differences between the two seasons is that they were always designed to feel different. And you know, this show, in a lot of ways, is about growing up. We have basically 20 episodes to tell the story, and we're halfway through at the end of last season. So it really is about growing up and making the show feel much more mature as a result this season.
Coming out of the university, at the beginning of last season, they were just really wide eyed. And as you look back at Season 1, there definitely was a transition into darker episodes in the second half. For me and for us as writers, it was really about just honoring that. And as things ramp up, the stakes get just bigger and bigger. It was really just honoring the stakes and honoring the idea that these characters are growing up, and they're getting into these darker situations. And they're having to make some tougher choices as a result.
I talked to Aliyah Royale [who plays Iris] towards the end of filming on Season 2, and she hinted that things get really dark. And the premiere literally ends with Iris killing a person, which is huge for her! Can you talk a bit more about her transformation this season?
You know, there was always, I think, a darkness to Iris, like just in the fact that in the beginning she was very -- I'm just thinking back to the pilot -- she was always very outwardly cheery. The thing was she was smiling, but there was a little bit of a darkness behind the smile, because she wasn't feeling fulfilled. And she felt like she was making choices that weren't her own. And she dreamed she was dead as a result. So even from a character perspective, there's some darkness there that's been there from the beginning.
I think that, for her, the stakes were raised exponentially at the end of last season, because her dad was with the CRM, as he's been since the beginning of the series, [and] she doesn't know what kind of condition he's in. And then by the time we get to the finale of last season, her sister is now with this same nefarious organization as well. More and more of her family is now sort of in their custody. And for that reason, she doesn't want to just sit by and do nothing, and she's willing to take those chances. She sees the CRM -- she's had a big realization in the premiere of this season that, you know, maybe they're responsible not just for the destruction of the university, but also of Omaha.
And so you know, if this is, in fact, a genocidal organization that are capable of doing those sort of horrific, horrific things... She's made this decision; something's clicked within herself that says, "If they win by killing us, I shouldn't be afraid to kill one of them, if not more." And so I really do think it's coming out of everything she's experienced over the course of the previous 10 episodes. But it's also her growing up and realizing that she's going to have to make these types of choices and realizing that, no matter what that does in terms of who she becomes, that's what's right for her in the moment.
It seems like she's very much on a parallel arc with Hope, where Hope is kind of coming from the darkness and finding her purpose, while Iris is losing some of that goodness and innocence. Can you tell me a bit more about that?
I think that there was this part of Iris that was always a fighter that wasn't really ever willing to stand by and just sort of accept what's happening around her. She was the one at the beginning of last season to make the decision to leave the Campus Colony and embark on this, you know, it seems like a suicide mission. And so she's always been willing to, I think, take chances and maybe buck expectations. But again, I think that for her the stakes are so huge that she's willing to take that risk.
What we see happen through the course of [Episode] 201, we're charting two very divergent paths. Like, her and Hope, they've been together as sisters since they were adopted from the crib of this orphanage, essentially, all those years ago. And so they've been joined at the hip, and this is the first time they've really been separated for any length of time. I think what we're going to see here are these journeys that maybe take them down at least, like, slightly different paths. And I do think there's a reality to that.
I do think part of growing up, sometimes, means growing apart and learning different lessons apart from each other. So I think in the end, we see Iris going darker, and we see Hope getting exposed to something that could potentially one day lead to a future. And that's based, sort of, in a more cerebral place, for lack of a better word. And so you have the physicality of what Iris has done versus Hope intellectually starting to grasp what this could mean for her.
Episode 201 is very much about introducing parallels, and I keep ruminating on it, because you guys also introduced the Perimeter. They're a really interesting organization, because they seem more agrarian and nice. They're very much, like, a foil to CRM. Could you talk a little bit more about them for me?
I will say we'll be learning a little bit more about them and their relationship to the CRM in the coming episodes. But you know, basically, what they represent is a humanity. I see them as basically good people just trying to survive. We'll kind of explain a little bit of their situation in [Episode] 201, which is "they don't bother us, we don't bother them." They provide this service for the CRM, and in return, the CRM kind of just lets them live. They don't kick them out of their home. I think that the reading between the lines there is that perhaps the Perimeter was there before the CRM moved into the research facility.
So I do think that there are some parallels there between the colonizers, so to speak, and the indigenous people that had been there longer. I do think that they have this pact, but I don't think that necessarily means they see eye to eye. I think that there is some very, very big difference there in terms of how they choose to live their lives. And it's just a matter of -- if this is a tenuous alliance, how long is it going to stay that way? And I feel like there are there risks for going against the CRM, which we see Indira do, essentially, by taking in these strangers. But at the same time, that's obviously a risk that Indira's willing to take, so we'll see what where that leads in the future.
Something that also struck me was that, in Season 1, the survivors are very together, and they go on a journey. It's very self contained in that way. Season 2 doesn't start in that place. Can you speak a bit about how keeping these groups apart affects your storytelling capabilities and how you tell the story?
This was a group that was, for the most part, joined at the hip the entire season. And I think through being exposed to each other and learning more about each other, they grew closer in a lot of respects until the group split apart. So I do think having the group split up for at least a bit, that opens up some interesting storytelling and some interesting character development in terms of how they can come into their own a little bit more and learn more about themselves apart versus learning more about each other while they're together.
And getting back to the Iris and Hope of it all, for me, it's so interesting that they had this pact when they ended last season, which is the CRM needs me, but they don't realize that what they probably need is us. And it's essentially on them to get their father back and destroy the CRM. And that's the page they left on at the end of last season, and we'll see if their time apart changes that or maybe changes how they feel about that pact they made at the end of last season, because what they go through may change some of their thoughts about that. And when they finally come together, I think that's going to make for some pretty interesting moments.
Matt, is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up?
I'll just say I'm super excited about this season. I really feel like, as I'm wrapping up the [post-production] side of the season, it's been really great to see it all come together, to bring these worlds together. You know, the idea that it's all culminating in [...] this sort of action packed ending, where it kind of brings all the elements that we've been weaving throughout both seasons together in a way that I'm really excited about. So I just can't wait for this season to continue to unfold and to see what people think, because I hope they enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed working on it.
The first episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond is out now. Episode 2 releases Oct. 10.