The Walking Dead World Beyond: Jadis is the key to Rick Grimes

Fans of The Walking Dead universe received surprise crossover news this week. Pollyanna McIntosh, who played Jadis/Anne on The Walking Dead, will be crossing over to the second spinoff series, The Walking Dead World Beyond, for its second and final season.

Jadis, who later changed back to her real name Anne, was the one who had contact with the CRM helicopter who saved Rick Grimes after the bridge blew up. She and Rick were often on opposite sides, and she even betrayed him to the Saviors. Was her act of saving him an attempt at righting the wrongs she did to him or just a way to save her own skin?

When we first meet Jadis, she speaks in broken English, rarely using first-person pronouns, and was the leader of the Scavengers who resided at a junkyard with a very interesting haircut. She was obviously a strong leader, as her people followed her instructions without question, but she was also greedy and would do anything to get what she wanted.

Will Jadis share information about Rick Grimes?

The main question in The Walking Dead fandom is Where is Rick Grimes? First off, do not expect to see the appearance of Rick Grimes in the second season of World Beyond. This isn’t new information, as The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple shared in December during an interview with Comicbook.com.

In July, Chris Hardwick asked at Comic Con@Home if a big moment in season 2 would be Rick Grimes and Gimple replied: “I’m glad you said that. Not Rick Grimes. Not Rick Grimes.”

So, now we are past that…back to Jadis and her role in World Beyond. She is the key to information about Rick because she was the last person we saw him with during season 9. She also had some arrangement with the CRM even before the helicopter whisked her and Rick away and would have leverage with them.

Jadis could give us great intel on what occurred during the helicopter ride and after, where the CRM took Rick, and where he is now. Gimple said in a statement that years have passed since Jadis and Rick’s helicopter ride, and she has become a big part of the CRM and the Three Circles mythology.

She seems very acclimated to the CRM way of life in the season 2 World Beyond trailer (below). She looks very militant with her new haircut and wardrobe. Her comment, “I know that the Civic Republic is the last light of the world. My purpose is to create a new era on this planet. Hope we get to catch up while I’m here,” makes us curious to know who she is talking to. Rick is too obvious, and we know he won’t appear in the series.

This brings up the question of Heath, once again. We saw the name Heath pop up in an episode of The Walking Dead making everyone think he would reappear in that series. But, we saw the RV that Heath and Tara were using when we last saw Heath in Jadis’s junkyard. This probably means she traded him to the CRM.

Showrunner Angela Kang did say this was the intention when they were writing Heath out of the series, as the actor Corey Hawkins had huge opportunities before him. So, perhaps we will see Heath before the end of this season.

It is exciting to have Jadis as the crossover character because of the ties to Rick. It would be better to see him, but to get information about him is better than nothing.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond will return to AMC with its 10 episode second season on October 3. Each episode of this season will be available one week early on AMC+, beginning September 26.