Walking Dead Star Terry Crews on Evie and Joe’s Future: “There’s Dark Times Ahead”

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s Tales of TWD series premiere, “Evie/Joe.” “You were so busy trying to survive the end of the world, yours never got started,” hippie Evie (Olivia Munn) tells reclusive prepper Joe (Terry Crews) on Tales of the Walking Dead. 402 days into the walker apocalypse, a chance encounter sends strangers Evie and Joe road tripping through the Midwest to meet prepper Sandra (Kersti Bryan) IRL, who connected with Joe online under the handle “USHLDBSCRD.” But after spending the first 13 months of the zombie apocalypse holed up underground, Sandra lives up to her username when her delusional paranoia convinces her Evie and Joe are scheming to steal her well-stocked bunker.

Surviving underground in total isolation and hoarding her supplies caused Sandra to become unhinged — and dangerous. “The first few months down here were tough. Not the staying alive part. That was easy. Obviously, I was prepared,” Sandra told Joe. “Ignoring all the screams? That was the hard part. People, they would find me here. They would bang on my door, they’d plead.” To drown them out, Sandra played Buddy Holly’s “Dearest,” only to later lure desperate survivors inside and murder them.

After being catfished by his instant messenger buddy — and killing her in self-defense to escape Sandra’s basement bunker — the episode ends with Evie and Joe back on the road.

Read More: Exclusive Interview: Terry Crews Wants to Tell More Tales of the Walking Dead ▸ Tales of TWD Series Premiere Recap: “Evie/Joe” 

“My life. It never got started. I had something precious, and I did everything to make sure no one could touch it,” Joe realizes. “I made it worthless that way, Evie! The hell I do?”

“So start now,” she tells him. “It’s not over. You have a person standing right in front of you! Maybe there’s more out there, too. I mean, look around. You are a part of this screwed-up, beautiful place.” In a dead world, there’s still life out there. 

What’s next for Evie and Joe? Could the duo (and pet lamb Skipper) return down the road in the Walking Dead Universe? We asked Crews all that and more in our exclusive post-mortem interview. 

“I’m going to be really straight because [in] the Walking Dead world, hope doesn’t last long,” Crews told ComicBook. “And I love the way they ended this thing, very hopeful, but I feel there are very, very dark times headed for both of them.”

Evie ended up being right in this episode, Crews notes, “But I think in any future iterations that we may do, that Joe is going to be right.”

An isolated and depressed pessimist whose worldview clashes with free spirit Evie’s at first, Joe’s journey out of his own bunker for the first time in 13 months nearly ends with him drugged and murdered in a basement. According to Crews, it’s a sign of what’s to come in the next decade-plus of the zombie apocalypse — if Evie and Joe survive that long. 

“Even being catfished with Sandra and the whole thing, they began to experience betrayal,” Crews said. “It’s only a little more than 400 days into the apocalypse. And I think there’s some really dark times ahead.” 

Asked if the two Walking Dead newcomers could return in future episodes of Tales of the Walking Dead or beyond, Crews said, “Absolutely. Absolutely.”

“This is a non-linear [tale], we don’t know what part, we just know it is a year and so into [the apocalypse],” Crews said. “But what I love is the way when you watch Walking Dead, they go back years into people’s backstories. And then you turn around, and bam, you’re right there in the current time.”

With three more Walking Dead spinoffs ordered at AMC Networks, Crews sees it as “three different worlds that I could enter.” After The Walking Dead concludes with a final eight episodes this fall, the stories of Daryl (Norman Reedus), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) will continue in three new series set to premiere in 2023 on AMC. 

New episodes of Tales of the Walking Dead air Sundays on AMC and AMC+.
Follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead for TWD Universe coverage all season long.