Spoilers ahead–according to the recently-aired series finale of Walking Dead: World Beyond, the zombie outbreak in the franchise was apparently manmade.
In a post-credits scene that is completely unrelated to the events of Walking Dead: World Beyond, an exchange spoken in French between a gunman and a doctor–no name is given for either character–medical researchers in France were inadvertently responsible for both starting–and worsening–the zombie apocalypse we’ve all come to know and love across a franchise that spans both the flagship and several spinoff series. It’s unknown, but likely, that this information will come to bear in future Walking Dead content–maybe in the movie that series creator Robert Kirkman said is still “moving slowly” in pre-production at Comic-Con 2021?
Last year, Kirkman jokingly revealed in a since-deleted tweet that in the comics, “space spores” are responsible for the outbreak. As previously reported, Kirkman quickly walked that revelation back–many fans at the time pointed out that “space spores” was also a nod to George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.
Season 11 of The Walking Dead will finish out the series, and is currently a third through airing. The season is not expected to air all the way through until sometime in 2022. The ever-expanding franchise is still picking up speed, though, as there’s also the animated anthology Tales of the Walking Dead and a set of feature films for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).
