The Walking Dead: Will We Finally See Rick’s Brother?

Will The Walking Dead Universe finally tell us the story of Rick Grimes’ missing younger brother, Jeff?

When there’s a lull in Walking Dead stuff for me to watch, I start thinking about where I’d like to see the franchise go, or what might come down the pike, and this week, part of that got me thinking about the ending of the World Beyond season finale.

Just as a refresher, at the end of that episode, we saw inside the French equivalent to the CDC, where one doctor was watching videos showing part of a long-distance correspondence between someone and Dr. Edwin Jenner at the CDC in Atlanta. This was just before the arrival of Rick Grimes’ group of survivors. In those videos, Dr. Jenner addresses how he hasn’t seen nor heard of any virus variants in North America, which he was questioned about by his French counterpart in an earlier discourse.

Following that, the doctor is interrupted by a young man who, while not specifying how makes it plain that she and her colleague’s efforts to combat the zombie virus made things worse. Suggesting that they caused the disease to spread more, and at worst, perhaps making walkers in France (And, likely, most of mainland Europe) even more dangerous than we’ve seen them in Mexico or the U.S.

Seeing this, specifically, finally showing us a glimpse of what Europe looks like in the Walking Dead universe, got me wondering: Does this mean we’ll FINALLY meet Rick’s younger brother, Jeff?

For those who may not know, a few years back, a Walking Dead webcomic came out called The Walking Dead: The Alien, which followed the story of Rick’s younger brother, Jeff, who, while traveling in Barcelona, discovers that he can’t return to the U.S. (To be at Rick’s side following his shooting) because of a quarantine that’s been put in place. Not long afterward, the zombie outbreak begins, and Jeff is now forced to survive in an unfamiliar place while trying to find a way back to his homeland, with the help of a local museum curator named Claudia.

The reason I’m thinking about this is that with the World Beyond post-credits sequence being the first time we’ve seen anything of what the apocalypse was like in Europe. I feel like it’s not too far of a stretch to assume that Tales Of The Walking Dead (Or, perhaps, another spin-off) might continue with this idea, especially if we had a character directly related to Rick to serve as our window into this “alien” world.

If this happened, where would they go with it? We could see the beginning of the outbreak from a whole new perspective, seeing what people in Spain (And probably France, seeing as how it would be our entry point into a Walking Dead Europe) thought as the outbreak was beginning. Would we see the results of France’s efforts to cure the virus in more detail, and if it did result in super zombies, would they have made their way into Spain? Yes, the Pyrenees mountains would be a barrier, but it’s not like you can’t travel by land from France to Spain, so it’s possible.

Would Jeff’s story be a one-shot, or would it comprise a collection of Tales episodes, perhaps something which we’d occasionally be dropped back into if Tales episodes jumped from one scenario to another?

And, finally, if we were to be introduced to Jeff in the Walking Dead universe in some capacity, would he be incorporated into the universe proper? Would he wind up in the movies? Would he become the focus of a post-movie series, should one come about? Maybe I’m way off here, but the World Beyond post-credit sequence doesn’t seem like it was done to be a tiny glimpse of France that was never going to follow up on. It looks like it’s the first step into a new phase of Walking Dead stories, meant to give us an idea of where it might be set and what new threats the protagonists of this new phase would have to deal with.

But what do you guys think? Do you believe that we won’t see anything more of Europe in the Walking Dead universe? Do you think we will see Rick’s brother? If so, when? Or, is this the first you’ve heard of Rick’s brother? If so, I suggest checking out The Alien if you get a chance (They did a hardcover version last year if you prefer that). And, if you enjoyed this, and want to hear my thoughts on how to survive an actual zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also get it at Amazon here, on iTunes here!