Delays change the timeline for The Walking Dead in 2020

Now that The Walking Dead: World Beyond series premiere has been pushed back, it is safe to assume that The Walking Dead and Fear TWD will be impacted.

As Hollywood struggles to keep up with what seems to be hourly changes in the fight against novel coronavirus, production has stopped on almost every television show and movie. AMC just announced that the series premiere of The Walking Dead: World Beyond is being delayed and it could be a sign of a drastically changing timeline for The Walking Dead season 11 and Fear the Walking Dead season 6.

At the start of 2020, everything lined up to that there would be 42 episodes set in The Walking Dead Universe between The Walking Dead (8 episodes in season 10 and 8 in season 11), Fear the Walking Dead (16 episodes) and The Walking Dead: World Beyond (10 episodes). While their premieres and finales might have overlapped, it would still be 42 episodes of TWD goodness.

With the uncertainty surrounding novel coronavirus and many states issuing stay at home orders for the next few weeks, production has stopped and it is looking more and more like the delays will continue longer than initially believed. That means that production on The Walking Dead and its spinoffs will be delayed, too.

Here’s what we know so far:

• World Beyond’s series premiere has been pushed from April 12 to a later date
• Fear the Walking Dead started filming season 6 in December 2019 and was scheduled for a filming break when the stoppage came, so that means roughly half the season has been filmed.
• The Walking Dead was in pre-production on season 11. While the writers have been working from home, previous estimates suggested that filming would be delayed 2-3 weeks, but now it could be delayed even further.

How This Impacts the 2020 Timeline

Before things changed, World Beyond was set to air on April 12, timed to the season finale of The Walking Dead. Fear the Walking Dead would have followed after that, and then TWD would premiere in October as per usual.

Now, it is more likely that when stay at home orders lift, Fear TWD will finish production and get a later air date while The Walking Dead works to get caught up. Depending on when things get back to normal, World Beyond could fill in as a summer show and Fear could air in the fall while TWD finishes production. Or, if things are delayed even further, then World Beyond could air in the fall with Fear TWD and TWD pushing into 2021.

Though World Beyond has finished filming and the episodes are ready to air, it makes perfect sense to delay the premiere so that fans will have something to enjoy later on in the year now that there is no telling when the other shows will be able to resume work. The alternative would be to keep the April 12 airdate and have the 10 episodes play out, and then face the possibility of no new episodes until 2021. Given the choice, delaying the premiere is absolutely the right decision.

There is also the very real possibility that with the restrictions on travel and being in groups larger than 10 people, production on the Rick Grimes movies will also be delayed.

It’s unfortunate, sure, but it is important to note that these are challenging times for everyone. The cast and crew are unable to work and that means that all of the crew, including the talented make-up, costume, props and F/X team, are all out of jobs for the duration. You can bet everyone wants to work but for safety’s sake it’s not possible just yet.

This is a developing situation. Keep checking back for more updates as they become available.