'TWD: World Beyond' introduces a 'different' kind of zombie which may have implications for 'The Walking Dead' universe moving forward
- Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for "TWD: World Beyond."
- A seemingly faster walker appeared in a end-credits scene for "World Beyond."
"The Walking Dead: World Beyond" ended its limited two-season series with a mysterious tease suggesting a faster breed of zombies is coming to "TWD" universe."
In a five-minute coda at the episode's end, a French-speaking woman gets shot, presumably in the head.
As she lays head down on a desk, a video message from early on in the apocalypse plays featuring Centers for Disease Control virologist Dr. Edwin Jenner (Noah Emmerich) from "TWD" season one finale. He discusses a "variant cohort" that he hasn't seen, yet, in the United States.
Before you can wonder what that means, the woman wakes pretty quickly, seeming smarter and faster than the walkers we've previously seen in "TWD" universe.
Over a decade into the walker apocalypse, are we seeing a new breed of the undead?
It sure seems like it.
When Insider asked "TWD" universe chief, Scott M. Gimple, about this "variant cohort," he shared, "[Jenner] seems pretty intrigued that he's been told about something different going on."
"Then we see that walker, which is not super-powered, but different," Gimple confirmed. "I hope that people's imaginations are 'activated on' to what that could mean and what we could see."
It seems like we could start seeing faster, more aggressive versions of the undead in 'TWD' universe.
The woman we see in the coda scene to "World Beyond" reanimates very quickly.
Typically, when a walker reanimates, it takes a few hours, or longer, to become a member of the undead. On season one of "TWD," Jenner said resurrection times varied wildly, but the quickest report they had of someone turning was three minutes.
Did you notice on "World Beyond" that this woman turned much quicker? By Insider's count, it took about 28 seconds for the woman to reanimate.
When the undead come back to life, they're usually slow and move thoughtlessly around a room. The one on "World Beyond" seemed to move with purpose and be more feral.
Most interesting is that this woman appeared to be shot in the head. Usually, when you shoot someone in the head, they die. That doesn't seem to be the case here. Unless, the bullet conveniently missed the woman's brain, the scene seems to suggest there's a type of the undead who are much tougher to kill.
Is that breed of the undead in the states? Unclear.
In his video, Jenner says he hasn't seen any "variants," yet in the states. But, Jenner's video is also from the start of the zombie apocalypse, before he died on season one of "TWD."
In the past decade, it's possible that other walkers could have started to make their way to the United States on boats.
There's also the, less likely, possibility that they simply walked. In Tell Tale's "The Walking Dead" game, the undead could walk across the bottom of a body of water. While they may be able to cross a lake or river, they're probably not crossing the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans too easily.
If these different walkers don't make their way to the states — like our current survivors don't have enough on their plates — it's highly possible we could start seeing how the zombie apocalypse started affecting the rest of the world.
Of the coda scene, Gimple told Insider, "It's setting up a new story. Its connection to 'World Beyond' isn't as direct."
"It's the start of a new chapter," he added. "And I don't think people will expect, at all, what that chapter is, from what they saw. So, we really hope to surprise people... It's the beginning of new things with a very obvious tip to the past."
You can read our full interview with Gimple here and follow along with our "Walking Dead" coverage here.