The Complete Walking Dead Timeline Explained

Summary

• The Walking Dead Universe has multiple interconnected shows with complex timelines, causing confusion for viewers.
• Fear The Walking Dead Season 1 leads directly into The Walking Dead Season 1, with minimal time passing.
• The Walking Dead Season 9 introduces major time jumps, setting the stage for a convoluted timeline across the entire universe.

While it’s not talked about as often, The Walking Dead has its own interconnected universe the same way comic book fans have the MCU and the DCU. While the main The Walking Dead series is both at the center of and makes up most of the universe, more and more shows are coming out that branch off from the first series’ timeline.

There are enough shows in this The Walking Dead universe now that things can get a little confusing. Crossover characters like Morgan pop up and it’s hard to know just where they fit in and where they entered. This sort of stuff becomes especially confusing considering that every show in The Walking Dead Universe has a time jump at some point. Whether you’re new to the series and want to watch in chronological order or a veteran of the franchise and just want a better way to tell what happens when we’ve got you covered with this timeline that encompasses everything that’s been released so far.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 1

It should come as no surprise that in the canon of the franchise, Fear the Walking Dead‘s first season actually comes before the first season of the original The Walking Dead. The first few episodes of this spinoff series that didn’t debut until five years after The Walking Dead dealt with the country still trying to hold itself together after the zombie plague first started spreading.

The entire first season of Fear the Walking Dead takes place over just two weeks from August 25 to September 9, 2010, despite being six episodes long.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 2

Season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead picks up right where Season 1 left off and takes place from September 9, 2010 to September 30. Yet again, very little time passes in this show as the show covers just three weeks in 15 episodes.

It’s possible that while this show takes place on the West Coast, Rick Grimes has likely been shot and is resting in the hospital, being left alone as Atlanta and the rest of the world fall into chaos.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 3

Once again, the third season of Fear the Walking Dead picks up almost exactly where the previous season left off. It’s believed that this season officially crosses timelines with the original The Walking Dead as action starts to unfold on the other side of the country.

The season, which picks up on October 1, 2010, sees the Clark family separated by a dam explosion which is October 27, 2010. This is a momentous occurrence in the franchise as Rick Grimes wakes up, and Fear the Walking Dead will officially jump forward in time as the shows start to run concurrently.

The Walking Dead Season 1

Season 1 of The Walking Dead is similar to its spinoff in that it takes place over a very short period of time. Rick wakes up, meets Morgan and then goes looking for his family.

Once he finds them, they are start to form the group or survivors that will be a team for so many season afterwards. However, this first bunch of episodes are said to only take place from October 22, 2010 to October 27, 2010.

The Walking Dead Season 2

Season 2 spends most of its time on on the Greene family’s farm after Carl is accidentally shot while he’s out hunting. Starting on October 28, 2010 and running to November 15, 2010 when the farm is overrun and the groups head out into the wilderness. This is also where Rick kills Shane, who was out of control.

Elsewhere in the universe, Negan and his wife run out of cancer medication and she eventually kills herself as the series jumps forward in time for Season 3.

The Walking Dead Season 3

The first time jumps in The Walking Dead timeline happens between seasons 2 and 3, moving the story forward to June 2011, where the survivors find a prison and begin the work of clearing it out.

This season runs from June 15 to July 4 of 2011 and also introduces The Governor and Michonne to the series. The end of the season features the first big faceoff between Rick’s group and a group of armed up fighters from Woodbury.

The Walking Dead Season 4

The Walking Dead Season 4 sees another big time jump, all the way up to the new year, and only takes place over a 10-day period from January 26 to February 6, 2012.

Having won the first battle with Woodbury, the Governor is regrouping as Morgan Jones learns the combat style that will serve him well throughout the rest of the series. The season comes to an end with The Governor taking out the prison and Rick’s group again on the run.

The Walking Dead Season 5

After a couple of seasons where The Walking Dead had time jumps, Season 5 picks up right where Season 4 picks up and takes place almost over a month in the universe. The season starts on February 6, 2012 and concludes on March 13 of the same year.

The season is one of the longest as far as story timeline of the early installments, as Rick and his gang need to deal with the Terminus cannibals and then eventually find Alexandria where they’re finally able to set down roots.

The Walking Dead Season 6

Like the season before it, Season 6 of The Walking Dead takes place right after the end of Season 5. It runs for a couple of months, ending on May 3, 2012. The first half of the season takes place over only a few days as Alexandria deals with a herd moving through town.

There was a break and a short skip forward where Rick and his group meet Jesus and realize that there are more encampments out there in the world. They also run into Negan, and after he captures them, one of the biggest cliffhangers of the series happens when the audience doesn’t know who he kills.

The Walking Dead Season 7

The action kicks off in The Walking Dead Season 7 mere moments after Season 6 faded to black. Taking place over just 12 days (May 3 – May 15, 2012) and most of the season is Rick trying to find a way to deal with the death of Glenn.

While Rick’s attempt to overthrow Negan doesn’t work, he does find new allies that will be friends with the main group until the end of the original series in The Kingdom and their King, Ezekiel.

The Walking Dead Season 8

About two weeks have passed between Season 7 and Season 8 and this installment of The Walking Dead takes place over just a week (May 31-June 7, 2012).

The war between Rick and Negan comes to an end when Negan goes to prison and officially starts his redemption arc. As the season comes to a close, Alexandria, Oceanside, The Hilltop, and The Kingdom are all now working hand in hand and Maggie is getting ready to give birth to her and Glenn’s child.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 4

The fourth season of Fear the Walking Dead involves a rather impressive jump forward in time and seems to actually kick off just as Season 8 of TWD comes to a close. The series shows how Madison and her friends settled on a baseball field and thought it was “home” but are chased off by an enemy group.

This season also introduces some new characters that will be along for the ride for quite a while and brings Morgan Jones into the FTWD world, despite it being on the other side of the country. Officially the season starts on June 8 and ends on November 18, 2012.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 5

Another big-time jump as Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 starts almost a year after Season 4. Officially beginning on October 11 and running until December 12, 2013 and involves another group of survivors led by Virginia.

The end of the season sees Virginia shoot Morgan, leaving him for dead. Dwight also joins the group from the original The Walking Dead as he’s looking for his wife who ran away from The Saviors during the war with Rick and company.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 6

Morgan ends up making a comeback after being left for dead by Virginia and while she keeps her victims working for her, other forces are building up to try and knock her down a peg.

This season picks up about a month after Season 5 ended, giving Morgan time to try and really build his way back up. It runs for several months right up until spring getting sprung on April 23, 2014.

The Walking Dead Season 9

This is where The Walking Dead universal timeline gets really confusing. The start of the season jumps 20 months to February 12, 2014. This period is full of peace and prosperity, until Rick is “killed” in a bridge explosion. This season also has several jumps ahead past Michonne’s pregnancy and Daryl meeting Dog and Leah.

Eventually the season leaps all the way to January 30, 2021 when Judith is now eight years old and Alpha and The Whisperers are a real problem for the allied territories that are now operating without the help of Rick Grimes.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 7

Fear the Walking Dead often does a thing where the story is not told chronologically. That makes this season hard to follow but we do know that it essentially runs from April 23, right after the end of Season 6, to August 31, 2014.

Alicia’s arm loss happens in conjunction with Teddy’s nuke attack from season 6 and the survivors try to navigate a world where there are now irradiated zombies wandering around, making them even more dangerous than before.

Alicia’s arm loss happens in conjunction with Teddy’s nuke attack from season 6 and the survivors try to navigate a world where there are now irradiated zombies wandering around, making them even more dangerous than before.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 1

The second real The Walking Dead spinoff, The Walking Dead: World Beyond launched in 2020 and is essentially set in the same time period that it was actually on television. The story starts in August 25, 2020 and runs through October 5 of the same year.

The focus on the new community technically takes place during the time jumps in The Walking Dead Season 9 and long after all the events of Fear The Walking Dead except for that series’ final season. One thing this franchise does well is go back and tell stories of what people were doing in other parts of the world while the main show jumps in fits and starts. Put together, it fills out the world quite nicely.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

Yet another way in which the entire The Walking Dead universe timeline gets very foggy. This season shows where Rick has been and what he’s been doing for years after leaving the original show. It technically picks up during TWD’s Season 9, on August 27, 2020 but eventually jumps forward all the way to sometime in the summer of 2023.

At first Rick is a semi-loyal member of the CRM, but when he eventually reunites with Michonne the two lovers work to bring it down, forcing real change.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2

TWD: The World Beyond technically starts while Rick is still working with the CRM and being beaten down to the point where they believe he’s no longer trying to escape.

Set around three weeks in October (October 5-29) of 2020, the show and while the action is mainly about the kids learning the truth of their community. The most noteworthy part of this season actually happens in a post credit scene where viewers learned how the zombie plague started and why french scientists have actually made dealier variants of the undead.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 8

The final season of this spinoff runs almost entirely concurrently in universe with The Walking Dead Season 10. It appears that the action for the finale kicks off on July 15, 2021 and runs up until Christmas time on December 15.

Morgan leaves early on in this timeline to go find Rick, who he did not know was presumed dead. In the series finale, Madison learns Alicia is still alive and reunites with her daughter, and they leave together, reuniting as the last members of the family left alive, which started things off in Season 1.

The Walking Dead Season 10

The Walking Dead season 10 picks up seven months after the season 9 finale on August 15, 2021. However, once the time jump is made, things slow down and the season takes place over just a few months and ends on September 23 of the same year.

The big events of this period is the war against The Whisperers and while it takes up most of the season, in-universe, it’s relatively quick as it’s thought to be about two weeks long, with Negan killing Alpha about two weeks before the season ends.

The Walking Dead Season 11

The end of the show that started it all wraps up all the timelines of the shows that came along with it. TWD Season 11 picks up one day after Season 10 ends and involves bringing down the quasi-fascist government of the Commonwealth.

The battle with Pamela Milton and her forces ends on April 10, 2022 and then the wrap up of the series jumps forward until the summer of 2023 when all is “right” with the world and people like Judith talking about rebuilding has begun in the settlements. This also brings the show in line with The Ones Who Live and essentially resets the board for the spinoffs that come next.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1

While the exact timing of the Daryl Dixon spinoff is hard to nail down, it’s not thought that it’s too far after he left his friends to go on a special mission to find Rick Grimes. However, he’s sidetracked and taken to France where he becomes a freedom fighter once again.

It’s thought that The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon takes place over just a few weeks and kicks off in August of 2023.

The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon Season 2

Season 2 of the popular spinoff is said by one of the people in charge of the series to start just a few months after the end of Season 1. This means that it’s likely late fall of 2023.

So far, one of the things that makes this series so nice is that there aren’t a bunch of time jumps and splintered off storylines fans need to track. The big event of this season of course, is that Carol and Daryl find each other one more time.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1

The Walking Dead: Dead City takes a massive time jump, six years in-universe from where the original show left off. This is why Maggie is looking for her son in a part of the world viewers had never seen before and allows for all sorts of storytelling to come about from what happened with her and with Negan.

The first season takes place just over a week, from June 20 to June 27, 2029. While it hasn’t aired yet, the season season of this The Walking Dead spinoff will likely kick off not long after Season 1’s story came to a close.