The Walking Dead Spinoff Trailer Reveals A Surprising Character Return
A Walking Dead character makes a surprising return in the trailer for a spinoff series.
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While The Walking Dead and is usually more well known for shocking viewers by abruptly and brutally taking characters out of the story, in the trailer that dropped yesterday for a spin-off series, the creators do the opposite and return a long absent character to the post-apocalyptic saga.
Yesterday an extended trailer dropped for the second and final season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Along with, unsurprisingly, plenty of scenes of gore and cannibalism, the trailer ends with reveal of the return of Anne, aka Jadis (Polyanna McIntosh) to the franchise. The fan-favorite character was last seen in 2018’s What Comes After — the season 9 episode of The Walking Dead which also features what has thus far been the final appearance of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).
In her voiceover, Jadis seems to confirm what seemed apparent to many fans during her earlier appearances on The Walking Dead, that Jadis is working with the Civic Republic Military. She refers to the Civic Republic as the “last light of the world” and says that her purpose is to “create a new era on this planet.” However, it could be that Jadis’ links to the CRM don’t go back as far as her time on The Walking Dead. Per Collider, World Beyond co-creator Scott M. Gimple says the character “has new allies and alliances.”
The very presence of Jadis may understandably have fans thinking that Rick Grimes might make an appearance in season 2 of The Walking Dead: The World Beyond. The last time we see Rick, after all, is when Jadis saves him and carries him away on a helicopter. Per Den of Geek, however, showrunner Matt Negrete insists Grimes won’t appear in The World Beyond.
Still, considering everything, it’s almost unthinkable that Jadis’ presence wouldn’t gives us some kind of update regarding the original lead of The Walking Dead. According to Collider, Gimple has alluded to fans at least getting some breadcrumbs about Rick Grimes, saying that we’ll get “hints” about what went on during “that fateful helicopter ride.”
Speaking of big character returns, the last half of The Walking Dead‘s 10th season included the return of Maggie (Lauren Cohan) who — like Rick and Jadis — left the show in season 9’s What Comes After. The brutal Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) makes Maggie a widow in the season 7 premiere of the show when he murders Glenn (Steven Yeun) and this is continuing to cause issues in the show’s final season. Convinced she plans to murder him, Negan leaves Maggie to almost certain death in Acheron: Part I. She manages to survive in the following episode, though the actress said she was hoping her character would shoot Negan for what he did.
Meanwhile, for the Negan actor, almost killing Maggie didn’t even feel like the worst thing he did that episode. Earlier in the season 11 The Walking Dead episode Acheron: Part I, Negan tells Maggie, “I am not gonna let you drag me through the mud, filth, and slime to put me down like a dog. Like Glenn was.” Morgan said he fought to get his mentioning of Glenn out of the episode, explaining that it would erase “any goodwill” Negan had built with the audience.
The Walking Dead: The World Beyond returns to AMC for its final season on Sunday, October 3.
