Walking Dead: Every SDCC 2020 Reveal About TWD, FTWD & World Beyond

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Here's what we learned about the world of The Walking Dead via the SDCC 2020 panels. AMC's zombie series might not be the ratings draw that it used to be, but The Walking Dead is expanding considerably in 2020 and beyond. The main series should've wrapped up its tenth season by now, but due to the ongoing pandemic, the finale episode has yet to air. Fortunately, season 11 has already been confirmed. Meanwhile, Fear The Walking Dead is currently preparing for its sixth season. The spin-off has endured mixed fortunes, but has now fully integrated with its parent series through a number of crossover characters.

A third Walking Dead series is also in development. World Beyond is due to premiere later this year and will follow a younger cast who have grown up knowing only the post-outbreak landscape. Trailers have confirmed World Beyond will at least somewhat tie into the ongoing mystery of Rick Grimes' disappearance. Speaking of Andrew Lincoln's character, there's still precious little on the upcoming Rick-centric Walking Dead movie, and the project was not referenced at all in any of the SDCC 2020 panels.

With the aforementioned pandemic putting paid to the traditional comic con format, The Walking Dead held a virtual panel for 2020 and all three TV shows were discussed. Here's everything the cast and crew revealed.

The Walking Dead

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• The Walking Dead's season 10 finale will arrive October 4th on AMC, immediately before the premiere of World Beyond.
• Some fresh season 10 finale footage depicts Beta hallucinating conversations with the undead. The zombies announce "we are the end of the world" and Beta ominously tells them to "begin."
• Norman Reedus believes Daryl enjoys being "Uncle Daryl" to Judith and R.J.
• Scott M. Gimple (overseer of the Walking Dead universe) sees the job of looking after Judith and R.J. as a dangerous position, given how all of their guardians seem to perish.
• Showrunner Angela Kang teases a long road ahead in the rebuilding of Daryl and Carol's relationship, even heading into season 11.
• According to Khary Payton, Ezekiel will be looking to check off his bucket list in the face of his fatal illness.
• Ross Marquand (Aaron) compares the introduction of the mysterious masked character seen in the season 10 finale trailer to the debut of Michonne in season 3. He also confirms that the enigmatic warrior is male. While the actor would love for Aaron to find a new partner after Jesus' death, that seems unlikely in the immediate future.
• The Walking Dead season 11 will not premiere in 2020 due to the pandemic, but Angela Kang announces that season 10 will air an additional 6 episodes following the finale. These will air in early 2021.
• Lauren Cohan confirms Maggie is back in The Walking Dead properly from the season 10 finale onward. Cohan also teases potentially directing a future episode.

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• Greg Nicotero feels that directing Lauren Cohan taught him about how to work with actors on set.
• Angela Kang teases Maggie's intense anger when she finds out Negan has been released from prison and now grows tomatoes, living a relatively normal life. Jeffrey Dean Morgan counters by arguing that Negan has saved a bunch of Maggie's friends while she was away.
• Addressing Negan's relationship with Glenn and Maggie's son, Hershel, Jeffrey Dean Morgan claims his character won't shy away from trying to "work through" the issue of Glenn's murder.
• Gimple predicts that if Rick Grimes had decided to kill Negan, the knock-on effect might've meant the Whisperers wiping out a weaker, more divided Alexandria, with Lydia killing Alpha.
• Seth Gilliam sees Gabriel's current leadership role as a shot at redemption after the priest refused to let his pre-outbreak followers into his church and condemned them to death.
• Paola Lazaro (Princess) says she would've loved to film a scene with Dale in The Walking Dead, but can't wait for her character to meet Negan and Carol.
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan expresses a degree of disappointment that he didn't get to film Negan's final scene with Lucille from the comic books.
• If Gimple could create a solo series based around one The Walking Dead character's life before the zombie outbreak, he'd pick Glenn.
• More intriguingly, Gimple confirms that plans are afoot to bring back legacy characters in stories set near the beginning of the apocalypse.
• Angela Kang teases some "amazing" scenes for Gabriel. He's definitely going to die, isn't he?

Fear The Walking Dead Season 6

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• Fear The Walking Dead season 6 will premiere October 11th on AMC.
• A short teaser trailer reveals Morgan Jones (Lennie James) is still alive! Alicia and Strand have been taken to a settlement called Lawton and the fight for oil from season 5 seems to be continuing. There's a creepy guy in a mask and Althea's kick-ass truck is back in action. Virginia hires a mysterious figure in a cowboy hat to hunt down Morgan, who is seen with strange red eyes. Most of this footage was premiered in the April teaser, but there's more on the cowboy hat man here.
• Scott M. Gimple describes Virginia as the cheeriest villain in the franchise, but promises new shades to the character in season 6. Lennie James talks up Colby Minifie's performance as Virginia.
• Colman Domingo (Victor Strand) teases that his character's survival instinct will come out in season 6 after becoming more of a team player in recent episodes. Old school, selfish Strand definitely looks set to make a comeback. Domingo also directs a "Die Hard-esque" installment this season.
• Andrew Chambliss reveals the pandemic halted production halfway through filming on Fear The Walking Dead season 6.
• Lennie James hopes Morgan can find love after an initial spark with Grace, but acknowledges that his character rarely has anything easy. James makes his Walking Dead directorial debut this season.
• Scott M. Gimple teases the return of Isabelle, the love interest of Al in season 5. This is significant as Isabelle is a member of the mysterious CRM group, otherwise known as the helicopter people who took away Rick.

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• Fear The Walking Dead season 6 will be markedly different, as the characters are living under Virginia's rule rather than being the masters of their own destiny. Ian Goldberg confirms that season 6 will not only be darker, but will also take on a more anthology-style structure.
• Lennie James believes Rick Grimes would be scared at what becomes of Morgan in season 6. Could this have something to do with his shiny new red eyes?
• Gimple confirms Fear The Walking Dead season 6 will contain multiple time jumps. The spin-off could catch up to the main show.
• Karen David alludes to the problems Grace's pregnancy will cause in Fear The Walking Dead season 6.
• While Goldberg can confirm Dwight and Sherri will reunite in Fear The Walking Dead, he hints that they won't necessarily come together romantically as before.
• Gimple reveals that Virginia's sister Dakota will be introduced this season.
• Rubén Blades (Daniel Salazar) describes sneaking treats to the cat who played Skidmark while filming, much to the annoyance of the show's animal trainer.

Walking Dead: World Beyond

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• A brand new teaser shows a huge walled community celebrating "Monument Day." A woman dressed in black, Elizabeth, gets out of the same type of helicopter that abducted Rick Grimes; she appears to be the leader of this community. Much of the trailer is comprised of zombie kills (some of which are pretty cool).
• Executive producer Matt Negrete teases flashbacks to a major event called "The Night the Sky Fell" and Monument Day is a commemoration of this tragedy.
• Zombies in World Beyond are called "Empties." This is derived from Jesus in the original comic books.
• The kid heroes of World Beyond have knowledge of the undead, but most have never been forced to kill one.
• Alexa Mansour plays Hope, but the actress describes her character as having a more grim outlook. World Beyond's two sisters, Iris and Hope, are very reliant on each other, but polar opposites in many ways.

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• Joe Holt plays Dr. Leo Bennett, a world renowned biochemist. This could potentially lead to some new reveals about the nature of the zombie virus.
• The overall plot of World Beyond appears to be Dr. Bennett heading out to another community to share his knowledge about the virus. He gets into some unknown trouble and his two daughters, Iris and Hope, set out to save him with a bunch of other youngsters.
• Julia Ormond (Elizabeth) describes the community she leads as "authoritarian" and teases a more villainous slant to her character.
• Elton (played by Nicolas Cantu) has a conspiracy theory in World Beyond, believing the zombies are part of an extinction level event that will wipe out humanity. Cantu would love to share a scene with Eugene out of anyone from the original Walking Dead series.
• Huck (Annet Mahendru) sets out to try and bring Iris' group back to the community.
• Silas is described as a loner with a dark secret. He chooses to leave with the group because he feels alienated within the main community.
• The poles with the flick-out blades in World Beyond after apparently called S-poles.
• Scott M. Gimple confirms that World Beyond will reveal a LOT about the helicopter group, the CRM, describing them as a "constant presence" and promising that the new show will tie into the previous two.
• All of Walking Dead: World Beyond's first season is in the can, with season 2 in the writing process.