The Walking Dead Universe Boss Teases Three Shows Have “Different Piece” of Bigger Puzzle

It’s all connected in The Walking Dead Universe. The Civic Republic Military will return in upcoming seasons of spin-offs Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, revealing new intel about the mysterious helicopter group who flew off with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) on Season 9 of The Walking Dead. Scott Gimple, franchise chief content officer and executive producer of all three AMC series, teases the recurring military organization that’s been buzzing around TWD Universe since a Season 8 episode of The Walking Dead in 2017 is one piece of a much larger puzzle.

“Each show has a different piece of the puzzle. But those pieces of the puzzle … aren’t just plots. They’re personal stories for the characters that do advance aspects of like the greater mythology,” Gimple said during Fear‘s San Diego Comic-Con@Home panel. “But the CRM stuff in Fear really has to do with a couple characters very deeply, and their situation bleeds out to other characters.”

Season 6 of Fear built up to a reunion between Althea (Maggie Grace) and her romantic interest Isabelle (Sydney Lemmon), a CRM soldier who first touches down with her helicopter in Season 5. That storyline pays off in the Season 6 finale, “The Beginning,” when Al sends Isabelle to shuttle a group of her friends to safety away from the ten nuclear warheads that turn Texas into ground zero of the nuclear zombie apocalypse.

The CRM is “part of a personal and emotional story on [Fear],” Gimple said. “It just so happens, though, that it does give other information to the greater world in which [the characters] inhabit. And there are sort of interesting historical or prequel aspects because this [Fear Season 7] happens earlier than things we see on the other shows.”

Fear is currently years behind Season 2 of World Beyond and Season 11 of The Walking Dead, which now takes place 12 years post-outbreak. The flagship series jumps more than six years into the future after Rick’s disappearance in the Season 9 episode “What Comes After,” which ends with Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) urging the CRM to rescue Rick when he nearly dies in a bridge explosion.

Rick returns in The Walking Dead Movie from Gimple and creator Robert Kirkman that pits the missing Rick against the CRM in a different corner of the zombie apocalypse. World Beyond star Julia Ormond, who plays the Lt. Col. of the Civic Republic’s military organization, previously dubbed the CRM an “existential threat” to the entire Walking Dead Universe.

The Final Season of The Walking Dead premieres August 22 on AMC. Fear and World Beyond return with new seasons this fall on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.