Season 1 (World Beyond)

This article is about the first season of the World Beyond TV Series. You may be looking for the first season of the Original TV Series, the first season of the Video Game, or the first season of the Fear TV Series.

Season 1
Distributor	AMC Fox International Channels
Showrunner	Matt Negrete
Based On	AMC's The Walking Dead
Channels	AMC (United States) Fox (International)
Episodes	"Brave" "The Blaze of Gory" "The Tyger and the Lamb" "The Wrong End of a Telescope" "Madman Across the Water" "Shadow Puppets" "Truth or Dare" "The Sky Is a Graveyard" "The Deepest Cut" "In This Life"
Original Run	Oct 4, 2020 to Nov 29, 2020
Succeeded By	Season 2

Season 1 of AMC's The Walking Dead: World Beyond premiered on October 4, 2020, and concluded on November 29, 2020, consisting of 10 episodes. The series is a companion series to The Walking Dead, which is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. It was executive produced by Kirkman, David Alpert, Gale Anne Hurd, Brian Bockrath, Scott Gimple and Matt Negrete, with Negrete assuming the role of showrunner.

The season follows a heroic group of teens sheltered from the dangers of the post-apocalyptic world leave the safety of the only home they have ever known and embark on a cross-country journey to find the one man who can possibly save the world.

Plot

"Brave"

TBA

"The Blaze of Gory"

TBA

"The Tyger and the Lamb"

TBA

"The Wrong End of a Telescope"

TBA

"Madman Across the Water"

TBA

"Shadow Puppets"

TBA

"Truth or Dare"

TBA

"The Sky Is a Graveyard"

TBA

"The Deepest Cut"

TBA

"In This Life"

TBA

Episodes

	Title	Writer(s)	Director(s)	Original Air Date	U.S. Viewers
1.	"Brave"	Scott Gimple Matt Negrete	Magnus Martens	October 4, 2020	1.60 million
2.	"The Blaze of Gory"	Ben Sokolowski	Magnus Martens	October 11, 2020	1.04 million
3.	"The Tyger and the Lamb"	Siavash Farahani	Sharat Raju	October 18, 2020	1.04 million
4.	"The Wrong End of a Telescope"	Sinead Daly	Rachel Leiterman	October 25, 2020	1.02 million
5.	"Madman Across the Water"	Rohit Kumar	Dan Liu	November 1, 2020	0.74 million
6.	"Shadow Puppets"	Maya Goldsmith	Michael Cudlitz	November 8, 2020	0.73 million
7.	"Truth or Dare"	Eddie Guzelian	Michael Cudlitz	November 15, 2020	0.78 million
8.	"The Sky Is a Graveyard"	Elizabeth Padden	Loren Yaconelli	November 22, 2020	0.63 million
9.	"The Deepest Cut"	Ben Sokolowski Maya Goldsmith	Sydney Freeland	November 29, 2020	0.62 million
10.	"In This Life"	Matt Negrete Ben Sokolowski Maya Goldsmith	Magnus Martens	November 29, 2020	0.62 million

Title Screen

Main article: Title Screens (World Beyond)

Cast

• Starring
• Also Starring
• Co-Stars
• Uncredited

Starring

• Aliyah Royale as Iris Bennett (10/10)
• Alexa Mansour as Hope Bennett (10/10)
• Hal Cumpston as Silas Plaskett (9/10)
• Nicolas Cantu as Elton Ortiz (10/10)
• Nico Tortorella as Felix Carlucci (10/10)
• Annet Mahendru as Jennifer Mallick (9/10)
• Julia Ormond as Elizabeth Kublek (5/10)

Supporting

• Joe Holt as Leopold Bennett (6/10)
• Christina Marie Karis as Kari Bennett (3/10)
• Christina Brucato as Amelia Ortiz (5/10)
• Natalie Gold as Lyla Belshaw (3/10)
• Ted Sutherland as Percy (5/10)
• Jelani Alladin as Will Campbell (2/10)

Guests

• Beth Leavel as Dr. K (1/10)
• Al Calderon as Barca (2/10)
• James Martin Kelly as Marco Voci (1/10)
• Reece Rios as Isaac Ortiz (1/10)
• Scott Adsit as Tony Delmado (3/10)
• Gil Perez-Abraham as Drake (1/10)
• Dave MacDonald as Wilkins (1/10)
• Paul Teal as Walter (1/10)
• Kai Lennox as Gary Plaskett (3/10)

Co-Stars

• Dani Fish as Dani (2/10)
• Aislin Freya Pax as Phoebe (2/10)
• Gabriella Garcia as Jan (1/10)
• Matt Burke as Adult Administrator (1/10)
• Pritesh Shah as Mr. Kapadia (1/10)
• Samantha Lorraine as Younger Hope Bennett (4/10)
• Maliyah Monae Kellam as Younger Iris Bennett (2/10)
• Stirling Gardner as Cliff Carlucci (1/10)
• Dawson Shea as Younger Felix Carlucci (1/10)
• Diego Abraham as Teen Kid #1 (2/10)
• Jordan Sherley as Teen Kid #2 (2/10)
• Roger Dale Floyd as Younger Elton Ortiz (2/10)
• Michel Curiel as Private Owens (1/10)
• John Paul Steele as Corporal Simms (1/10)
• Catherine Taber as Mrs. Plaskett (1/10)
• Braxton Bjerken as Younger Silas Plaskett (1/10)
• Jennie Fahn as Ruth (1/10)
• Robert Palmer Watkins as Lieutenant Frank Newton (1/10)
• Jeris Donovan as Adoption Agent (1/10)

Uncredited

• Ryan Price as PFC Farmer
• Adam Hicks as Dawson
• S.J. Ovaska as Samuel Abbott
• Jeff Kober as Silas' Grandfather
• Unknown as Izzy
• Unknown as Sabina James
• Unknown as Campus Student 3
• Unknown as Silas' Grandmother
• Aaron Snyder as CRM Soldier
• Rick Calvin Branch as Community Citizen
• Lucky Harmon as Festival Attendee
• Oz Keenum as Festival Attendee and Pedestrian
• Gina Jun as Pedestrian
• William G. Tomek as Pedestrian
• Johnny Karzai as Martial Artist
• Jason White as Martial Artist
• Roger Tyler as Dice Player
• Megan LeRoy as Student
• Aaron Burnstein as Student
• Antoine D. Williams as Student
• Ron Blake as Injured Pedestrian
• Zach Ball as Will's Group Survivor

Deaths

• Dr. K (Alive and Zombified)
• Kari Bennett (Flashback)
• Amelia Ortiz (Flashback)
• Esmerelda Ortiz (Flashback)
• Jan (Off-Screen)
• Dani (Off-Screen)
• Phoebe (Off-Screen)
• Adult Administrator (Off-Screen)
• Izzy (Off-Screen)
• Mr. Kapadia (Off-Screen)
• Marco Voci (Off-Screen)
• Dr. Bavolar (Off-Screen)
• Cliff Carlucci (Confirmed Fate, Alive)
• Mrs. Carlucci (Confirmed Fate, Alive)
• Sabina James (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
• Samuel Abbott (Alive, Confirmed Fate)
• Gary Plaskett (Confirmed Fate)
• Isaac Ortiz (Alive and Zombified, Flashback)
• Dawson (Zombified)
• Corporal Simms (Flashback)
• PFC Farmer (Flashback)
• Wilkins (Flashback)
• Private Owens (Flashback)
• Drake (Flashback)
• Walter's Brother (Alive and Zombified; Confirmed Fate)
• Walter
• Tony Delmado
• At least 9,655 Campus Colony residents (Off-Screen)
• 2 unnamed Portland representatives (Off-Screen)
• 2 unnamed Omaha representatives (Off-Screen)
• Numerous unnamed Campus Colony residents (Confirmed Fate)
• Numerous unnamed people (Confirmed Fate)
• Several unnamed Hvass High School survivors (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
• Numerous Civic Republic test subjects (Alive, Confirmed Fate)
• Several unnamed U.S. Marines (Flashback)
• 1 rabbit

Production

Casting

In July 2019, Alexa Mansour, Nicolas Cantu, and Hal Cumpston were cast as main undisclosed roles. The same month, Aliyah Royale and Annet Mahendru joined the cast. The following month, Nico Tortorella. Julia Ormond was announced as a cast member in November 2019, playing the role of Elizabeth Kublek, the "charismatic leader of a large, sophisticated and formidable force".

In August 2019, Joe Holt was cast in a recurring role. In November, Natalie Gold, Al Calderon, Scott Adsit and Ted Sutherland were cast as Lyla Belshaw, Barca, Tony Delmado and Percy.

Filming

Filming for the season began late July 2019 in Richmond, Virginia and was expected to last until November 2019. Jordan Vogt-Roberts was originally announced to be the director of the pilot episode. However, Vogt-Roberts was replaced with Magnus Martens, who previously directed for Fear The Walking Dead. The change in directors was a result of the writers mapping out the rest of the season and production had to go in a different direction; Negrete said Vogt-Roberts still contributed ideas to the first episode. The series was looking to film a plane crash in the vein of Lost with filming to take place in Hopewell, Virginia during the first two weeks of August.

Release

Broadcast

The season was originally set to premiere on April 12, 2020, on AMC, after the tenth season finale of The Walking Dead. However, in March 2020, AMC announced that the premiere was delayed and would instead debut "later this year". On July 24, 2020, it was announced that the season would premiere on October 4, 2020. The series premiered on October 1, 2020, on AMC+, AMC's premium on-demand service and each episode will be available three days before their broadcast premiere.

Outside the United States, the series is distributed by Amazon Prime Video and first premiered on October 2, 2020.

Marketing

The first trailer was released at New York Comic Con on October 5, 2019. A second trailer was released November 25.

Reception

Critical Response

The first season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond has received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a score of 46% with an average rating of 4.90/10 based on 24 critics. The website's critical consensus reads: "The strong performances and new perspective in World Beyond within The Walking Dead universe aren't enough to make it stand out in an increasingly crowded franchise." On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 48 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicated "mixed or average reviews."

Daniel D'Addario of Variety gave it a generally positive review and wrote, "This is not a perfect series... And yet there's a willingness to reinvent, to genuinely probe a corner of the universe previously untouched, that makes this series feel serious in its intent and, for fans of the forerunning series, well worth checking out". In a more negative review from Candice Frederick of TV Guide, she graded it two out of five stars and wrote, "World Beyond doesn't offer audiences fresh ideas or even fascinating characters for which to root."

Home Media Releases

The first season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 15, 2021.

Trivia

• This is the only season in The Walking Dead franchise that had more than one episode air on the same night as an episode from another show.
  • It is also the only season that shared an airdate with both of the other shows, namely The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead.
    • The season premiere of this season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond is featured on the same night as the sixteenth episode of Season 10 of The Walking Dead.
      • This marks the first time a new episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond and The Walking Dead have been aired on the same night.
    • The second episode of this season is featured on the same night as the season premiere of Season 6 of Fear The Walking Dead.
      • This also marks the first time that a new episode of this series and Fear The Walking Dead have been aired on the same night.
• This season was originally going to premiere on April 12, 2020 but was moved to a later date due to the COVID-19 pandemic as most of the episodes were still in post-production.
• The season's events take place roughly ten years into the apocalypse.
  • This means the season takes place during the time skip in "What Comes After" of the main show.
  • With the start of the season being ten years after the outbreak, it starts on Day +3,650 at most.
• Michael Cudlitz, who portrayed Abraham Ford, made his directorial debut and directed two episodes of this season.
• This is the first season in which Matt Negrete is the showrunner for The Walking Dead: World Beyond.