The Walking Dead (franchise)

The Walking Dead
Created by	Robert Kirkman Tony Moore Charlie Adlard
Original work	The Walking Dead
Owner	AMC Networks (United States) Disney Platform Distribution (International)
Years	2003–present
Films and television
Television series	The Walking Dead Fear the Walking Dead World Beyond Tales of the Walking Dead
Web series	List of The Walking Dead episodes § Webisodes List of Fear the Walking Dead episodes § Webisodes
Games
Video game(s)	The Walking Dead Survival Instinct Road to Survival Overkill's The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners Survivors

The Walking Dead is a zombie apocalypse media franchise spawned from a comic book series first issued in 2003. The franchise comprises multiple television series, a web series, films, novels, video games, and various other media such as audio books and soundtracks. The original comic books were created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, with Charlie Adlard joining shortly after its creation.

The first television show, based on the comics, was originally adapted by Frank Darabont, who left due to conflicts with AMC. Actor Andrew Lincoln played the lead role of sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes for nine seasons. The second television series, which is a prequel and companion series, does not follow the comic book and originally focuses on the dysfunctional Clark family at the start of the zombie apocalypse. The third television series takes place ten years into the apocalypse and focuses on four teenagers, as they escape their safe haven to explore the world. The fourth television series, which is an episodic anthology series, takes place throughout the apocalypse, and focuses on different characters each episode, including characters from the original television show.

Comic book

Main article: The Walking Dead (comic book)

The Walking Dead franchise originates from the comic book series of the same name. The comics consist of a monthly black-and-white comic book series chronicling the travels of Rick Grimes, his family, and other survivors of a zombie apocalypse.

Issued in 2003 by publisher Image Comics, the series was created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore – who was later replaced by Charlie Adlard from issue #7 onward, though Moore continued to do the covers through issue #24. The Walking Dead comic book series received the 2010 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series at San Diego Comic-Con International. The 193rd and final issue was released in 2019.

Image Comics announced in July 2020 that it will republish The Walking Dead in full color, with coloring by Dave McCaig. The first issue of the reprint released October 7, 2020, with subsequent comics released twice a month from November 2020 onward.

Television series

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired	Showrunner(s)	Status

The Walking Dead (2010–2022)

Main article: The Walking Dead (TV series)

Sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma in a post-apocalyptic world where the undead, known as walkers, have taken over. Rick must fight for his survival to protect his family and friends while along the way he meets new allies and confronts enemies who try to take over communities.

Fear the Walking Dead (2015–present)

Main article: Fear the Walking Dead

Set initially in Los Angeles, California, the series follows a dysfunctional blended family composed of high school guidance counselor Madison Clark, her boyfriend and English teacher Travis Manawa, her daughter Alicia, and her drug-addicted son Nick, at the onset of the zombie apocalypse. The four must either revamp themselves or cling to their deep flaws as they come to terms with the impending collapse of civilization.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020–2021)

Main article: The Walking Dead: World Beyond

The series, set in Nebraska ten years after the zombie apocalypse, features four teenage protagonists.

Tales of the Walking Dead (2022–present)

Main article: Tales of the Walking Dead

The series is an episodic anthology series that is based on new and existing characters within The Walking Dead universe.

The Walking Dead: Dead City

In March 2022, AMC greenlit Isle of the Dead, starring Morgan and Cohan as their characters Negan and Maggie respectively. They are executive producing with Eli Jorné, who is serving as showrunner. The six-episode first season is scheduled to premiere in 2023. In July 2022, it was revealed the series would be set in New York City. In August 2022, the series was retitled as The Walking Dead: Dead City.

Daryl Dixon

A fourth spin-off series created by Angela Kang and Scott M. Gimple to star Reedus and McBride as their characters Daryl and Carol, respectively, was announced in September 2020, with plans to air in 2023 after the conclusion of the eleventh season of the main show. Kang, who has been the showrunner of the main show since the ninth season, was set to be the showrunner of the spin-off. In April 2022, the project was retooled to be entirely Daryl-focused as McBride departed the project. David Zabel will serve as showrunner, replacing Kang. In October 2022, the series' title was revealed to be Daryl Dixon.

Untitled Rick and Michonne spin-off series

In July 2022, it was announced that the films are being reworked into a sixth spin-off series, which will be a six-episode series, with potential for extra seasons, starring Lincoln and Gurira. The series will conclude Rick and Michonne's storyline following the main series' conclusion. The six-episode series will premiere in 2023. The series takes place after the events of the fifth episode of the ninth season, "What Comes After" and the thirteenth episode of the tenth season "What We Become", and presents an "epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world."

Web series

Further information: List of The Walking Dead episodes § Webisodes, and List of Fear the Walking Dead episodes § Webisodes

Season		Episodes	Originally released
Written by	Timeline

Canceled film trilogy

In November 2018, Scott Gimple announced on Talking Dead that three The Walking Dead films were in development from AMC Original Films, with Andrew Lincoln signed on to reprise his role as Rick Grimes. The films were to focus on the events that followed his exit from the television series. Pollyanna McIntosh would have reprised her role from the shows as Jadis.

In July 2019, it was revealed that the films would be released in theaters, rather than on television. The series will follow the continued adventures of Rick, with Gimple serving as screenwriter for the first film. Later that month, Universal Pictures acquired distribution for the film series. Production on the first film is scheduled to begin "as early as 2019". The creators have discussed the possibility of bringing back Corey Hawkins as Heath, who had his role cut short on the show to do other projects. In December 2020, Lincoln confirmed that the movie was planned to begin shooting in early 2021. In May 2021, it was confirmed that Gale Anne Hurd will be the executive producer for the first film.

Expanded setting

Games

Board games

Multiple board games for the franchise have been released.

• Cryptozoic Entertainment has released two board games based on the TV show:
  • The Walking Dead Board Game (2011)
  • The Walking Dead Board Game: Best Defense was released in 2013, as well as an expansion
• Keith Tralins, Brian-David Marshall, and Matthew Wang have released two games based on the comic:
  • Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead: The Board Game (2011), released by Z-Man Games
• The Walking Dead: The Prison (November 2014), released by Alliance Game Distributors
• A The Walking Game version of Monopoly has been released
• A The Walking Game version of Risk has been released
• In 2018, Mantic Games released a boardgame version of their miniature game All Out war focused on Negan

Card games

• Cryptozoic released The Walking Dead Card Game in 2013.

Miniatures games

• In January 2016, Mantic Games announced plans to release a tabletop miniature wargame (skirmish) based on The Walking Dead
• In 2019, Mantic Games launched a new version of their miniature game rules focused on larger battles, named The Walking Dead: Call To Arms. This game uses the same miniatures as The Walking Dead: All Out War.

Video games

Telltale Games

Main article: The Walking Dead (video game series)

The game for The Walking Dead set within the comic book universe.

The Walking Dead
File:The walking dead telltale game series logo.png
Genres	Interactive drama, graphic adventure
Developers	Telltale Games
Publishers	Telltale Games
Composers	Jared Emerson-Johnson
Platforms	Microsoft Windows OS X PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita Xbox 360 Xbox One Android iOS
First release	Season 1 – "A New Day" April 24, 2012
Latest release	Season 2 – "No Going Back" August 26, 2014

The Walking Dead is an episodic interactive drama graphic adventure video game series developed and published by Telltale Games. Based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series and its television adaptation, the series consists of two seasons with five episodes each, and one downloadable episode from Season 1.

The game takes place in the same fictional world as the comic, with events occurring shortly after the onset of the zombie apocalypse in Georgia. However, most of the characters are original to the game. Season 1 centers on university professor and convicted criminal Lee Everett, who rescues and subsequently cares for a young girl named Clementine trying to protect her from the dangers of zombies and dangerous people while preserving her innocence. Season 2 focuses on Clementine herself as she is emotionally and physically challenged by the dangers of the world as as her childhood innocence is slowly diminished by the difficult choices she must make.

Concept

The Walking Dead series is based on the comic series of the same name, but also has tied into the television series adaption of the comics. The game's events run concurrently to the comic, starting at the onset of a zombie apocalypse, where dead humans have become undead "walkers" that feed on the living which quickly overwhelmed most of the population. As established in the comic and show, this is a result of a virus that all living humans possess that takes over the brain of the body once the person dies, and the only way to stop this is to destroy the brain.

The game series initially starts in Georgia, with the whole of the first season and the events of 400 Days content taking place within the state. The second series follows the protagonists as they move north along the United States' eastern seaboard, believing there to be a human encampment in the north as well as the colder temperatures slowing the walkers' speed.

Gameplay

The Walking Dead games follow the same point-and-click adventure game approach that other Telltale Games episodic series have followed. Within an episode, the player controls a protagonist as the story progresses through several scenes. Within a scene, the player can move the character to explore the area, examine items, and initiate conversation trees with non-player characters; in these dialogs, the player has the option of selecting a number of options to reply to characters, including the option to stay silent. Other scenes are based on cinematic elements using quick time events in which the player must hit a controller button or a keyboard command as indicated on screen to react to an event. Failure to do so in time can lead to the character's death or other undesirable ending, and the game will restart just prior to these scenes.

All choices made by the player in The Walking Dead are tracked by the game, and certain choices ("determinants") will influence later scenes across the episodes and the series to date, when the player continues from the same saved game state. For example, in the first episode of the first season, the player has an option to save one of two non-player characters from a walker attack; the other character is killed, while the surviving character will uniquely impact other aspects of the story. Other times, selection of certain dialog options will influence the attitude of a non-player character towards the protagonist, and can manifest in later scenes as providing additional options for the player to select from. Telltale Games tracks these decisions, including five main choices made during the course of each episode, allowing players to compare their choices to others.

Series overview

Season 1 (2012)

Main article: The Walking Dead (video game)

At the onset of the zombie apocalypse, Lee Everett rescues young Clementine whose parents had traveled to Savannah prior to the apocalypse. They join with other survivors in Macon, Georgia to protect themselves from the undead, taking shelter in a defensible motel. When their position is overrun by both walkers and scavengers, the group flees and heads towards Savannah hoping to find boats to flee the mainland. Lee promises to reunite Clementine with her parents while teaching her rules of survival in this new world. In Savannah, they find no boats, and a strange man communicating to Clementine via walkie-talkie. When Clementine goes missing, Lee in his panic searching is accidentally bitten by a walker. With his time short, Lee assures the safety of the remaining survivors and goes to rescue Clementine, held by a man who has blamed Lee directly for the death of his family. Lee and Clementine overwhelm the man, and as they escape, they witness Clementine's parents, who have already become walkers. Clementine drags a weakening Lee to a safe location, and Lee, in his final moments of rationality, directs her to find the other survivors, before telling her to kill him before he fully becomes a walker.

"400 Days" (2013)

Main article: 400 Days (video game)

"400 Days" is a downloadable special episode. It focuses on five different protagonists and it serves as a bridge between Season 1 and Season 2. The five stories are unconnected outside of a final scene, where the survivors of each story are offered to be taken into a safe camp.

Season 2 (2013–14)

Main article: The Walking Dead: Season Two

More than a year after the first game, Clementine is separated from the other survivors and forced to fend on her own. She meets up with another group that are attempting to flee a man named Carver, who runs the human survivor camp at a strip mall, as alluded to in 400 Days. Clementine learns Carver seeks to capture Rebecca believing her to be carrying his child while she insists it is her husband Alvin's. They come into another group, discovering that Kenny, one of the survivors that Clementine traveled with from the first season and who had lost his wife and son to walkers, has managed to survive. In the midst of a walker attack, they are captured by Carver. Learning that a massive walker horde is approaching the strip mall and will readily overrun it, the group manages to escape with other prisoners, killing Carver in the process after he kills Alvin. During their escape, a woman that Kenny had taken a romantic interest in is bitten by a walker, forcing Clementine to intercede to kill her before she can turn, angering Kenny. As they regroup, Clementine becomes close to Jane, a loner that was part of the prisoners at Carver's camp and who teaches Clementine survival skills. Later, Rebecca dies after giving birth to a child, which they name Alvin Jr. As winter sets in, Jane and Kenny become hostile towards each other, and Kenny's distrust of the group leads to a fraction of them fleeing from Kenny, Jane, Clementine, and Alvin Jr.. Jane forces Clementine to see what Kenny has become from witnessing the deaths of his loved ones by faking the death of Alvin Jr., and Clementine is forced to intercede, killing one of them and opting to continue with the other while overseeing to Alvin Jr. herself.

Michonne (2016)

Main article: The Walking Dead: Michonne

In June 2015, Telltale announced a three-episode series The Walking Dead: Michonne. The mini-series will release on February 23, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One; February 25, 2016 for iOS and Android; and March 1, 2016 for PC, and will serve as a tie-in between the existing The Walking Dead seasons developed by Telltale. The series will mostly focus on the Michonne's untold story on what took Michonne away from Rick, Ezekiel, and the rest of Rick Grimes' trusted group and what brought her back. Samira Wiley will voice Michonne in the game. The mini-series was originally scheduled to be released as downloadable content for Season 2. However, in December 2015, Telltale announced that the game would be released as a standalone title that would not require any previous game in the series to play.

Season 3

A third season of The Walking Dead is expected to be released by Telltale in late 2016. The new series is planned to not only tie in all the possible endings that players from previous seasons may have taken, but as well as to draw in new players to the series. In an interview with IGN, Kirkman stated that the third season will bring the video game even closer to the comic book's current time frame at the time of its planned release. This season will take place a few years after the second season, and will include a somewhat older Clementine, though Kirkman did not affirm if she will be the playable character. Telltale is working to adapt its previous data about player choices from the first two seasons, which were saved locally to a player's computer or console, to work with their new cloud-based saving approach, so that these previous choices will affect how the story in the third season will play out. Telltale is expected to provide more details around the 2016 Comic-Con.

Cast and characters

The Walking Dead video game series introduces new characters developed by Telltale for the games. Season One is based around Lee Everett (voiced by Dave Fennoy), a Georgia college professor who had been charged with murder, and was in the midst of being sent to prison at the start of the walker outbreak. Lee escapes and encounters young Clementine (voiced by Melissa Hutchison), hiding in her treehouse after her babysitter had turned and her parents not yet back from vacation. Lee becomes a protective figure to her to help reunite her with her parents. Within Season Two taking place about a year later, Clementine is now the central character, struggling to find a place in several survivor groups.

Other major characters include Kenny, a fisherman who has suffered numerous losses of family and loved ones and has become emotionally unstable, Jane, a young lone-wolf woman that teaches and warns Clementine about Kenny's instability, Carver, a principle antagonist of Season Two that seeks out the group of survivors that Clementine has joined believing one carries his child, and A.J., the newborn infant that Carver seeks who Clementine takes care of after his mother succumbs to the elements. The fate of several characters are determinant based on the actions that the player has taken in previous episodes, or otherwise unresolved within the narrative of the games. As the game takes place within the comic's universe, there have been some character crossovers with the series; Hershel Greene, Shawn Greene and Glenn Rhee, three characters from the comic series, have appeared briefly in Season One, while Michonne is featured as the playable-character in the Michonne mini-series. Kenny, Lilly, Duck

Critical reception

Season 1 and "400 Days"

The Walking Dead has received critical acclaim, with reviewers giving praise for the harsh emotional tone, the characters, story and the resemblance to the original comic book, although criticizing the graphical glitches. The game received over 80 Game of the Year awards and many other awards.

"Episode 1 – A New Day" received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic calculated scores of 85.14% and 84/100, respectively, for the PlayStation 3 version, 83.87% and 79/100 for the Xbox 360 version, and 83.38% and 82/100 for the PC version. The game received various accolades including the IGN "Editors' Choice", PC Gamer "Editors' Choice", Xbox Editors' Choice Award, and the PlayStation Gold Award.

"Episode 2 – Starved for Help" received positive reviews. GameRankings and Metacritic calculated scores of 86.53% and 84/100, respectively, for the PC version, 86.26% and 84/100 for the Xbox 360 version, and 85.90% and 84/100 for the PlayStation 3 version. The game won the GameSpy E3 2012 award for "Best Adventure Game".

"Episode 3 – Long Road Ahead" received positive reviews. GameRankings and Metacritic calculated scores of 88.47% and 88/100, respectively, for the Xbox 360 version, 86.11% and 87/100 for the PlayStation 3 version, and 85.41% and 85/100 for the PC version. IGN's Greg Miller gave the game a 9 out of 10, saying "It's a disturbing, depressing and entertaining entry in a journey that's been nothing short of excellent so far." GameSpot gave the game an 8.5, saying "The Walking Dead has passed the midway point of its series of five episodes with every indication that the game will keep getting better right through to its inevitably depressing and unsettling conclusion." MTV also gave it a positive review, saying "Telltale has created a series of wrenching, emotional decisions in the middle of a collection of not-too-hard puzzles in a visually-impressive adaptation of the Robert Kirkman comic series (with some nods to the TV show)."

"Episode 4 – Around Every Corner" received positive reviews, but to a lesser extent than the previous episodes. GameRankings and Metacritic calculated scores of 84.00% and 80/100, respectively, for the PC version, 82.50% and 82/100 the Xbox 360 version, and 78.94% and 81/100 for the PlayStation 3 version.

"Episode 5 – No Time Left" received critical acclaim. GameRankings and Metacritic calculated scores of 94.75% and 89/100, respectively, for the PC version, 88.15% and 89/100 for the Xbox 360 version, and 87.75% and 88/100 for the PlayStation 3 version.

"400 Days" received positive reviews. GameRankings and Metacritic calculated scores of 78.20% and 78/100, respectively, for the PlayStation 3 version, 78.00% and 78/100 for the PC version, and 76.88% and 80/100 for the Xbox 360 version.

Season 2

The Walking Dead: Season Two overall received positive reviews from critics. In addition, particular praise went to the atmosphere and protagonist. However, it was heavily criticized due to its short episode lengths, limited interactions with the environment, lack of hubs, absence of a wise adult character to replace Lee, and shortage of poignant thrills between main characters that made season 1 noticeable.

Episode 1 – All That Remains received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 81.29% and 82/100, the PC version 78.76% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 77.50% and 80/100. Matt Liebl from GameZone gave the episode an 8.5/10, stating that it "...is just a taste of what's to come -- a mere setup for the horror that awaits us in the final four episodes."

Episode 2 - A House Divided received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 87.29% and 82/100, the PC version 81.39% and 81/100 and the Xbox 360 version 79.44% and 80/100. Mitch Dyer from IGN gave the episode a 9.5/10, saying it is one of the best episodes Telltale Games has ever made.

Episode 3 - In Harm's Way received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 82.43% and 80/100, the Xbox 360 version 82.25% and 82/100 and the PC version 82.22% and 81/100.

Episode 4 - Amid the Ruins received mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 79.22% and 78/100, the PC version 78.58% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 72.00% and 71/100.

Episode 5 – No Going Back received positive reviews, higher than its predecessor. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 81.67% and 87/100, the PC version 79.19% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 77.00% and 84/100. Mitch Dyer of IGN gave the episode a 9.5/10 saying that the finale is "an impressive and intelligent episode, and among Telltale Games' finest stories."

External links

• Official website

The Walking Dead: Social Game

Flash based social game on Facebook, launched in 2012 and shut down at the end of 2014.

Survival Instinct

Main article: The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

On July 6, 2012, Activision announced a first-person shooter based on and set before the television series, which is being developed by Terminal Reality. It was released on March 19, 2013, in North America. It was met with negative reception.

The Walking Dead: Dead Reckoning

Game for the AMC website and set before the television series.

The Walking Dead: Road to Survival

Main article: The Walking Dead: Road to Survival

The Walking Dead: Road to Survival is a role-playing video game developed by Scopely based on the comic book series. It was released initially on the Android platform, later on iOS. Players complete various missions using teams, in exchange for further rewards, and more challenging stages.

The Walking Dead: No Man's Land

Game for Android/iOS.

The Walking Dead: Our World

Location-based mobile game. Set in The Walking Dead universe and developed by Next Games.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead

Main article: The Escapists

The Escapists: The Walking Dead is a spin-off from The Escapists, a strategy video game about escaping prisons.

Overkill's The Walking Dead

Main article: Overkill's The Walking Dead

In August 2014, Starbreeze Studios announced that a The Walking Dead co-op first-person shooter is in development by Overkill Software. The game is called Overkill's The Walking Dead, and it claims to deliver a "completely new co-op experience" to The Walking Dead universe that will explore new characters and storylines. It was scheduled to launch on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows in 2018. The game is being made with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who says he was certain from the first day he saw the project that it was the "co-op action game fans have been waiting for." It is also the result of a new "long-term" partnership between Starbreeze and Kirkman's company Skybound Interactive. This partnership will extend "into the next decade" and marks a new era for Starbreeze, the company said. It is takes place within the comic book universe of The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a virtual reality game developed by Skybound Entertainment. It was released on January 23, 2020.

The Walking Dead: Onslaught

A VR game for AMC's The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead: Last Mile

The Walking Dead: Last Mile is a live, interactive, online experience and game on Facebook Instant Gaming. It was released on August 22, 2022.

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution

A sequel, titled The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, is set to be released for Meta Quest 2 in December 1, 2022, and for PlayStation VR and PlayStation VR2 in 2023.

Attractions

The Walking Dead: The Ride

Located in Thorpe Park, The Ride is a re-design of a previously standing ride. Opened as The Walking Dead: The Ride in March 2018. As part of the Year of The Walking Dead. The rides slogan is "Those who ride, survive".

Novels

Novels for The Walking Dead set within the comic book universe.

Other products

• McFarlane Toys manufactured action figures resembling the characters in the comic book for September 2011 release. In addition, action figures resembling characters from the TV series, including Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, and a dismemberable "walker", were set for release in November 2011.
• Taverncraft has produced The Walking Dead pint glasses and steins, and has a license to release lighters for the series as well.
• Titan Magazines has published The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine since October 2012.
• Vannen Watches has produced two limited edition wrist watches featuring artwork from Charlie Adlard. The first watch was released February 2012, and came with packaging that was hand-signed by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. The second watch was released June 2012, and came with packaging signed only by Robert Kirkman.
• Two pinball tables based on the series were released: a physical table developed by Stern Pinball and a virtual one developed and published by Zen Studios, based on Telltale Games' The Walking Dead: Season One.

Parodies

• Dave Sheridan starred and produced the parody film The Walking Deceased (2015).

External links

• The Walking Dead Universe at AMC