The Walking Dead is set to launch its second spinoff shortly; here are all the Fear The Walking Dead mistakes World Beyond needs to avoid. The Walking Dead’s first spinoff launched in 2015 with the intention of exploring the zombie apocalypse in its earliest days, before Rick Grimes awoke from his coma. As the plot advanced, Fear The Walking Dead quickly caught up to its parent series and, eventually, the two become intertwined, with characters crossing from one to the other. Despite increasing in relevance to the main series, Fear The Walking Dead has generally struggled, both in terms of inconsistent reviews and sliding viewership.
Nevertheless, The Walking Dead is pressing ahead with another spinoff venture as part of its expansion since the end of the comic books. Now confirmed under the title The Walking Dead: World Beyond, the series will focus on a younger group of survivors who are part of a much larger settlement, but strike out under their own terms to explore the outside world, having largely grown up under the murky shadow of a zombie apocalypse. Trailers have hinted at a larger connection to the world of The Walking Dead, with one of the characters wearing the same symbol that was emblazoned on the helicopter spotted spiriting away Rick in The Walking Dead season 9.
It’s undeniably strange for a TV series to have 3 separate properties running at the same time, especially when the second has endured very mixed reactions. However, the big advantage to this setup is being able to learn from past mistakes. Fear The Walking Dead has made several slip-ups during its 5 seasons thus far, and that’s plenty of time to analyze what works and what doesn’t ahead of World Beyond. Here’s the Fear The Walking Dead mistakes the new spinoff needs to avoid.
Take A Different Tone To The Walking Dead
It seems only logical that if a franchise has 3 shows on TV simultaneously, they should at least feel like distinctly unique entities, but this isn’t something that can often be said about Fear The Walking Dead. Although the original early-outbreak setting served to differentiate the spinoff from the main series, that novelty soon wore off, and as the zombie apocalypse took hold on the world, Fear The Walking Dead began to wander into distinctly familiar territory. Attempts were made to separate the two (Fear The Walking Dead season 2 takes place mostly at sea, for example) but, inevitably, there was only so long the spinoff could hold out before falling into the same bleak, gritty horror pigeonhole as its predecessor.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond has made a positive first step by casting a string of younger actors. This perhaps might hint at YA leanings that would take the franchise into new territory and, at the very least, these juvenile survivors will have different problems to face than their grown-up counterparts on the other two series. The World Beyond teaser seemed to indicate a lighter tone than seen previously in the franchise, with the youthful cast cracking wise while cracking skulls. Although not to everyone’s taste, this would help offer something The Walking Dead fans aren’t currently getting.
Do What The Walking Dead Can’t
With each passing season, Fear The Walking Dead has borrowed more and more from the original show, from enemy groups who are the Saviors in all but name to directly lifting Gabriel’s origin story. Viewers have generally seen right through this approach and the sliding ratings can surely be attributed in part to the increasing similarities between both shows. The vast majority of Fear The Walking Dead’s audience are already familiar with The Walking Dead, and the same will be true of World Beyond, so it makes sense to take advantage of the original show’s limitations.
The Walking Dead is restricted to a confined geographical area and, for now at least, bound somewhat by the events of its source material. With such a mainstream presence, The Walking Dead also has limited opportunity to take narrative risks, and any controversy generated has mostly been negative, such as with the Negan season finale cliffhanger or the death of Carl Grimes. World Beyond has the opportunity to probe areas The Walking Dead simply can’t. The new spinoff can explore more diverse locales, perhaps even touching on the zombie outbreak in other countries. It can afford to be less mainstream in its structure and story, akin to how Legion spins the X-Men franchise into something completely fresh. And World Beyond can also answer questions outside of those posed by the comic book, such as the science and origins behind the infection.
Establish A Lead Protagonist
Perhaps the biggest thing World Beyond can do that the other two series currently do not is establish a clear lead protagonist. Since Rick’s death, The Walking Dead has taken on a more ensemble approach that appears to be serving the series well. Fear The Walking Dead’s early seasons, however, never installed a clear focal point. Many viewers were left confused as to whether Madison, Nick or Travis was the leading figure at first and, tellingly, the brief period Madison emerged as the spinoff’s main woman was arguably the richest and most critically-praised period in the show’s history. Now that both The Walking Dead and FTWD have taken the ensemble route, World Beyond surely has to take the opposite route and establish a bona fide main character from the very beginning.
Don’t Change Focus Halfway Through
For season 4, Fear The Walking Dead performed a soft reboot, more or less abandoning the story of the Clark family and drafting in a host of new faces alongside some familiar ones from the main show. Reviews have not been kind to this change of focus, and even certain cast members have spoken out about how abruptly the spinoff altered its course. On a positive note, Morgan’s introduction did bring more eyes onto Fear The Walking Dead for a time, and new characters such as John Dorie, June and Al have plenty of positives to offer. But that initial boost in viewership hasn’t proved to be a long term benefit. Fear The Walking Dead’s early seasons may have endured tough times, but there were clearly many passionate fans heavily invested in the Clark family’s story that have been disappointed by more recent seasons. If World Beyond earns itself a small following, there’s little use alienating those viewers by reinventing the show when the going gets rough.
Make Better Use Of Villains
Even The Walking Dead’s critics would have to admit that Robert Kirkman’s undead creation knows how to do a good villain. The Governor, Negan and Alpha are all equally worthy adversaries and each bring something different to the story. Unfortunately, most viewers would struggle to recall a single arch antagonist from any of Fear The Walking Dead’s 5 seasons, despite various attempts to introduce new, intimidating enemies. Most problematically, the spinoff has featured plenty of villains with the potential to have a major impact on the series, such as the unhinged Troy Otto, the nomadic Vultures, and season 4’s strange poisoner, Martha.
Each of these figures could have been a prime antagonist over the course of multiple seasons, but instead, all three were used in a very limited capacity and dealt with swiftly, usually within a handful of episodes. Undoubtedly the best of these, Troy Otto, was culled well before his time, while the Vultures were finished off before having any serious impact on season 3 and Martha spent most of season 4 in the shadows, only to be killed off swiftly after emerging. If there’s one thing World Beyond should take from the original The Walking Dead series, it’s how to handle and build up bad guys.
Don’t Take In The Walking Dead’s Strays
Reviews have been generally unfavorable to the inclusion of Morgan in The Walking Dead, and the subsequent addition of Dwight in season 5 has failed to yield any significant development for the character, other than giving up on finding his wife because it was more convenient for the plot. With The Walking Dead’s crossovers generally considered to have missed their target, the additions of Morgan and Dwight now feel like last-ditch attempts to revive FTWD’s viewership with characters the main series had deemed surplus to requirements and this can be detrimental to a spinoff, reinforcing its status as a B-series.
The World Beyond would do well to avoid falling into the same trap, and should keep its cast to itself. There are other, more beneficial ways for World Beyond to connect to the main series, such as the CRM storyline and the three rings symbol, and delving into these areas would anchor the spinoff to its source without sharing personnel. Perhaps one way to improve any future crossing over of characters would be to ensure the process isn’t a one-way street, and that The Walking Dead would reciprocally feature figures from World Beyond if the spinoff was to take in any of Alexandria’s waifs and strays.
More: Fear The Walking Dead: Killing Off Morgan Would Be A Mistake
The Walking Dead season 10 returns and Fear The Walking Dead season 6 premieres in 2020 on AMC. The Walking Dead: World Beyond is expected in early 2020.
