Atlanta, Georgia, is the capital city of the state of Georgia. The Metro-Atlanta area's population was over 5.5 million people before the outbreak occurred. It was a major location in the comic series and in Season 1, a minor location in Season 2, and a major location again in Season 5 of the TV series.
Pre-Apocalypse
Location History
Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the state of Georgia. It is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,359,205 people and the ninth largest metropolitan area in the country. Atlanta is the primary transportation hub of the Southeastern United States, via highway, railroad, and air, as it has the busiest airport in the world.
Post-Apocalypse
TV Series
Season 1
As the undead rose, the government and military advised people to seek the larger cities for protection, yet were unable to handle the dire situation. The military failed to hold the infected back, resulting in the majority of its population reanimating as undead. Military checkpoints were overrun and vehicles were burned or abandoned. People attempted to flee the city using the freeways and highways, however, they became gridlocked, leaving the vehicle occupants vulnerable to the 'walkers'. The Center for Disease Control building is also based in Atlanta and was attempting to discover a cure for the outbreak. When the city became overrun and the military personnel within became infected, airstrikes were called in, releasing napalm onto the city streets. Nevertheless, they were ineffective at clearing out the city of the undead and most of the city remains intact, as just the streets of infected were targeted (which explains why when Rick Grimes entered the city, he saw several burned vehicles). With the city overrun with undead, it left the outskirts of Atlanta relatively safe until the walkers began to slowly make their way out to the more rural areas, in search of food.
Season 5
Atlanta is seen once again in the episode "Slabtown", where it's revealed that Beth Greene was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and was held here since her disappearance in Season 4. It is also revealed that the Atlanta Police Department is still in operation but is extremely limited in its jurisdiction and control, being confined to sections of Grady Memorial Hospital and maintaining somewhat of a dictatorship by forcing "rescued" survivors to do labor. Atlanta is also visited by Carol Peletier and Daryl Dixon in "Consumed" to search for Beth at Grady Memorial Hospital. Noah is also attempting to escape from Atlanta when he runs into Daryl and Carol.
Video Game
Season 1
In Season 1 of the Video Game, the main character Lee Everett is handcuffed in the back of a police car driving away from Atlanta to the Meriwether County Correctional Facility in Georgia. Though not seen in game since the introduction, several references are made about Atlanta by Lee informing other survivors that Atlanta is not safe, as well as Federal Rescue Services informing the state of the city via radio and emergency broadcasting. The FRS also declares the city a Level 9 Catastrophe since the start of the apocalypse, meaning that the city is completely overrun by walkers and is now lost. Near the end of the first episode of the game, Glenn wishes to leave the group of survivors and head for Atlanta to find his family and friends in hope that they are still alive.
Locations
Highway
- For full article, please see Interstate 85
One of the main highways leading to and from the city of Atlanta was Interstate 85. People attempting to flee the city jammed the outbound lanes of the highway, and with the highway blocked, people became more easily infected. Rick Grimes uses this stretch of highway (the inbound side) to enter the city by horse. Other survivors seem to use this highway a lot, as Glenn Rhee was seen driving a stolen car down this highway as a distraction to the walkers while Rick moved to save all the other survivors at the department store. The highway was also seen in "What Lies Ahead" in Season 2 where all of the survivors left Atlanta by driving down this highway. It was seen again in "Consumed" in Season 5 when Daryl and Carol were following the people who took Beth and drive along the highway to get back into the city.
In Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, Lee Everett is handcuffed in the back of a police car driving away from Atlanta to the prison in Georgia after being convicted of killing a US Senator over an affair with his wife. However, a walker on the highway gets in the way of the car and causes the cop and Lee to crash off the highway into a nearby ditch.
Main Street
Upon navigating the lifeless streets, Rick encounters a crowd of zombies, forcing him to flee. Unfortunately, he is knocked off his horse and seeks refuge in a tank as his horse is eaten alive by dozens of zombies. (Days Gone Bye) While avoiding the walkers, Rick drops his bag of guns on the street in order to survive, and later Glenn is seen sneaking on this street to get Rick's hat and the bag of guns back.
Department Store
Rick is contacted by Glenn via radio, who gives him instructions on how to escape his position stuck inside the army tank. Rick makes it to the location Glenn tells him to go to and the pair flee from the zombies up a ladder to the rooftops. From there, they make their way to a department store where other survivors are holed up. T-Dog and Morales emerge from the store to clear nearby zombies so Rick and Glenn can enter. Inside are the other survivors, Jacqui and Andrea, while Merle Dixon is on the store roof, keeping guard. Due to the shooting by Rick and Merle's carelessness of shooting walkers for fun, the walkers have begun surrounding the store, trapping the survivors. At first, they attempt escaping underground, but the passage is blocked. Rick has another idea and drags the corpse of Wayne Dunlap inside the store before cutting open the body and smearing him and Glenn in the guts, allowing them to walk through the horde of zombies and steal two vehicles before returning to the store for the other survivors The group exit the city while Dixon is left behind, having been handcuffed to a pipe on the roof for turning against his fellow members, with the handcuff key lost. (Guts) Merle, having been left behind, began to become delirious, but snaps out of it and starts trying to grab a nearby hacksaw. Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl later return to the department store and head to the rooftop only to discover Merle has amputated his hand and escaped. (Tell It to the Frogs) The group follow a trail of blood that leads them to discover that Merle had cauterized his stump and escaped through a smashed window. After planning on how to retrieve a bag of guns from the nearby street, the group leave the department store. (Vatos)
Nursing Home
- For full article, please see the Atlanta Nursing Home
When Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl Dixon head back to Atlanta in order to release Merle from the handcuffed roof and retrieve the bag of guns left on the street, they come across other survivors that had been using a nursing home as a refuge base. The nursing home is filled with several dozen seniors who were abandoned by its caring staff, except for two people. Those two workers, members of the Vatos gang, recruit fellow gang members to assist with caring for the seniors of the home, transforming the home into a well-defended complex. The men are armed with various weapons and watch over the home, including a warehouse/garage that connects to the home, where cars are being worked upon. Other survivors included some women, caring as nurses for the senior citizens. (Vatos)
Center for Disease Control
- For the full article, please see the CDC
It is a main building within Atlanta that the survivors attempt to reach in Episode 5 of Season 1, "Wildfire", in an attempt to discover assistance and aid from the government.
Grady Memorial Hospital
Grady is located in the city of Atlanta. Beth Greene resides in Grady in Season 5. Remnants of the Atlanta Police Department have managed to keep part of the hospital running with a handful of other people under the leadership of Lt. Dawn Lerner.
Inhabitants
Comic Series
Residents
- Numerous counts of unnamed people
Deaths
- Numerous counts of unnamed people
- Numerous count of zombies
TV Series
Residents
- Mr. Morales - a survivor who lived with his family in Atlanta before the outbreak
- Miranda Morales - a survivor who lived with her husband and family in Atlanta before the outbreak
- Eliza Morales - a survivor who lived with her parents and brother in Atlanta before the outbreak
- Louis Morales - a survivor who lived with his parents and sister in Atlanta before the outbreak
- Amy - a survivor who lived in the city of Atlanta where she was attending college and lived in a dorm room
- Jim - an auto mechanic and specialized in car and vehicle repair
- Glenn Rhee - Originally from Michigan, he moved to Atlanta sometime within his adult years.
- T-Dog - a survivor who lived in Atlanta before the outbreak
- Jacqui - a survivor who lived in Atlanta where she worked for the city's zoning department
- Eastman - an forensic psychiatrist working for the prison system
- Numerous counts of unnamed people
Deaths
- Siggard family horse - grabbed and devoured while helping Rick get into Atlanta
- Wayne Dunlap - killed by zombies and then killed by T-Dog
- Ed Peletier - killed by zombies in the nearby camp
- Amy - killed by zombies in the nearby camp
- Jim - bitten by a zombie and by choice left to turn into one himself
- Dr. Edwin Jenner - killed in the CDC explosion
- Jacqui - killed in the CDC explosion
- Gavin Trevitt - accidentally killed by Beth Greene
- Joan - suicide
- Officer Gorman - killed by a reanimated Joan
- Sgt. Bob Lamson - shot in the head by Rick Grimes
- Officer O'Donnell - pushed down an elevator shaft by Beth Greene
- Beth Greene - accidentally shot in the head by Dawn Lerner
- Lt. Dawn Lerner - shot in the head by Daryl Dixon
- Numerous counts of unnamed people
- Numerous count of zombies
Video Game Series
Residents
- Lee Everett - a University of Georgia Athens history teacher who was born and raised in Macon and then lived in Atlanta with his wife prior the outbreak
- Lee's wife - Lee Everett's wife
- Steve - a radio broadcaster for WABE who was heard on the radio
- Carley - a quick-thinking regional news reporter from Atlanta
- Numerous counts of unnamed people
- Numerous counts of zombies
Appearances
TV SeriesSeason 1
Season 2
Season 5WebisodesCold StorageVideo GameSeason 1
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Gallery
Atlanta in the Comic Series
Atlanta in the TV Series
Atlanta in the Video Game
Trivia
- There are a few members of The Walking Dead TV series and Fear The Walking Dead cast and crew that were actually born in Atlanta, Georgia:
- Chandler Riggs, who plays Carl Grimes
- Scott Wilson, who plays Hershel Greene
- James Allen McCune, who plays Jimmy
- IronE Singleton, who plays T-Dog
- Lorenzo Henrie, who plays Chris Manawa
- Roger Jackson, who voices Chuck in the Video Game, is also from Atlanta.
- This is the only location to appear in the comic series, TV series, video game, and webisodes.
- The city is mentioned several times in the Video Game and is only briefly seen at the very beginning.
- Locations for Rick's house, Morgan Jones's house, and the park where the "Bicycle Girl" is first spotted and later killed are all within a quarter mile of each other in Atlanta's historic Grant Park neighborhood. In fact, Rick's house is directly across the street from the Zoo Atlanta. One of its buildings can be seen as Rick leaves his house.
- Many of the scenes in Atlanta were shot in the Five Points district. Locations such as Woodruff Park, Georgia State University, and the buildings surrounding them such as 25 Park Place, the Equitable Building, and the Candler Building can be seen during Rick's escapades.
- Downtown Atlanta is a buyable property in The Walking Dead Monopoly.
- Homer Simpson appears on a Billboard in the comics.