‘World Beyond’ Review: The Perfect ‘Walking Dead’ for Generation COVID

I first watched the series premiere of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, a teen-focused spinoff of AMC’s zombie franchise, on March 9. Sitting in my office in Manhattan, the news about coronavirus seemed manageable, like something that might go away soon after a “regular” flu season. It was present, it was concerning, but I was still able to push it to the background. So watching the exploits of a bunch of kids growing up in relative comfort during the apocalypse who trek out into the real world for the first time seemed like showrunner Matt Negrete had nailed the professed mission: a John Hughes movie, but with zombies. Here were a bunch of dumb teens who think they’re safe, but clearly aren’t; classic zombie fiction heroes.

A week later, the world fell apart. Flash forward to months later, in the midst of a deadly pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands and yet people still insist that they don’t need to do basic things like wear a mask, and World Beyond suddenly feels that more pressing, more urgent, and more relevant. Back in March, you could watch the exploits of some teens and laugh. Now, we are the world beyond; and this drama is the perfect TV show for Generation COVID.

Before we get back to the general relevance of World Beyond to our current circumstances, a bit about the plot of the show (the first two episodes of the ten episode season were provided for review). Initially set in one of three Civil Republic Military (CRM) cities, World Beyond shows how not everyone has had to scramble for scraps like on The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. Thanks to an alliance between the three pockets of civilization, things are settled, food is plentiful, and everyone is pretty happy. Except for the teens, of course, who want the typical teen thing: to be anywhere else.

Despite frequent flashbacks a la LOST (down to a plane crash in the first episode), the bulk of the action focuses on stars Aliyah Royale as Iris, Annet Mahendru as Huck, Alexa Mansour as Hope, Nicolas Cantu as Elton, and Hal Cumpston as Silas; a mixed group of teens straight out of The Breakfast Club. They’re all good and will, I imagine, bring in a younger audience to the TWD franchise. But Mansour in particular is a revelation who gets to dig deep in her emotions and motivations, and almost immediately becomes an anchor for this show like Andrew Lincoln (on TWD) and Kim Dickens (on Fear) before her. Like Breakfast Club, she’s the John Bender (Judd Nelson), the rebel who spurs the more reserved characters on to action. And like Nelson’s Bender, it’s impossible to look away from her when she’s on screen.

When she’s off-screen, though, the show still finds time to bring in an adult cast that includes Julia Ormond (!!!) as Elizabeth Kublek, a leader in the CRM organization and a key to understanding the mysterious group which has thus-far plagued both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. She’s also what makes this spinoff essential to fans of the franchise… Where TWD has hinted at CRM with their long-running “helicopter people” mystery, which branched off when they air-lifted Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) to safety several seasons back; and Fear dug a little deeper by allowing us to meet one of those helicopter people; World Beyond is entrenched in CRM. There are still plenty of details to unravel by the time the second hour ends, and new mysteries that crop up. But if you’re curious about this “three rings” organization, World Beyond is like going from glimpsing the corner of a Christmas present in your parent’s closet, to seeing the catalogues they ordered from lying around the house.

That said, if you’re not already all-in on the CRM mystery, or Walking Dead in general, World Beyond still holds a surprising resonance that should reach beyond fans of the zombie franchise. There’s been a lot of discussion — and a fair amount of consternation — among TV critics, fans, and the people who make TV about how to tackle art during coronavirus. There have been some successes early on, like the Parks & Recreation special/fundraiser, or the Mythic Quest quarantine special that captured the feelings of being trapped inside, away from your loved ones. There have also been series that have found ways to work around the limitations while still entertaining, like HBO Max’s Selena + Chef or Prime Video’s after-show Inside The Boys. But later attempts to directly reproduce what it’s like to be in quarantine have fizzled: both Freeform’s Love in the Time of Corona and HBO’s Coastal Elites didn’t feel like they weren’t saying anything new about our current circumstances; they were just presenting them on screen, lightly fictionalized.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond gets it, though. What’s fascinating is that of course it didn’t mean to capture this moment so perfectly; it was produced, filmed, and mostly finished by the time coronavirus hit in full. The first of two planned 10-episode long seasons was originally meant to be released on April 12. But that’s often how the best art works, reflecting the world outside, whether it means to or not. And World Beyond, more than either of the previous Walking Dead series, nails that feeling, while still working as entertaining zombie fiction.

There have been a million tweets over the past few months about how people finally get why some dude would conceal a zombie bite in a movie, or how people would charge outside into a herd not realizing it was a big deal/deadly. World Beyond deals with all of that, and adds in the palpable feeling of what it’s like to be trapped inside, even with all your stuff. The yearning the teens of World Beyond feel for the outside world, the family ties they want to reconnect with, the idea that it’s thrilling to see somewhere else even if it’s an imminent danger to your survival feels incredibly real. Likewise, so does the thrust of CRM’s messaging which, without getting into spoilers, vacillates from telling the populace what they want to hear while to withholding incredibly important pieces of the truth.

But what makes it work is that it’s still a coming of age story with engaging characters, and it’s still full of gross, innovative zombies from effects guru Greg Nicotero and his team. The walkers/roamers/biters/whatever you want to call them of World Beyond are creative and new, overgrown with moss and decaying in an area that’s been mostly cleared of the undead. The show takes place roughly around the same time as the other two shows (which have both had multiple instances of timeline shake-ups); but World Beyond really does feel like a different place and time than TWD or Fear.

All of that comes together to create another solid entry in the franchise, with characters you’ll want to root for. But it probably isn’t until things settle down and the characters take stock that you’ll realize: oh right, they’re you. They’re me. Though hopefully, unlike the characters in World Beyond, we’ll be able to move past this time in history. For now, though, they’re living it for us.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond premieres on AMC on Sunday, October 4 at 10/9c.

Where to watch The Walking Dead: World Beyond