Why Jadis Landed on The Walking Dead: World Beyond Before the Rick Grimes Movie (Exclusive)

Pollyanna McIntosh’s Jadis is making a layover on The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Next stop: the Walking Dead movie reuniting McIntosh with her former series co-star Andrew Lincoln, reprising his role as Rick Grimes in a series of theatrical films. Six in-universe years after a Civic Republic Military helicopter rescues Rick and flies him away from The Walking Dead with Jadis, McIntosh returns as the first flagship series character to crossover into Season 2 of spin-off World Beyond. In real-time, three years have passed since Scott Gimple, the chief content officer of AMC’s Walking Dead Universe, announced the feature film trilogy continuing Jadis and Rick’s stories in a new corner of the zombie apocalypse.

It was a Jadis jolt when a trailer for World Beyond revealed the spinoff, a two-season limited event series created by Gimple and showrunner Matt Negrete, would be McIntosh’s destination ahead of the long-awaited Walking Dead movie originally expected to begin production in 2019. 

After arriving in a post-credits scene ending episode 5, “Quatervois,” set six years after Jadis’s fateful helicopter flight with Rick, McIntosh’s military cop Warrant Officer Jadis Stokes is sussing out suspected conspirators against the CRM as World Beyond barrels towards its epic conclusion on December 5.

We went to McIntosh for intel on The Walking Dead Movie and to find out if it was always the plan for Jadis to land on World Beyond: 

“I know that Gimple had wanted to see Jadis continue in some form or another. And I think he just really found the right fit here along with Matt as they’re exploring this new world,” McIntosh exclusively told ComicBook about her half-season stopover on World Beyond. “It worked great for me on the timing. We’re all hoping that these movies happen as well and certainly they will, but who wants to wait for that? Let’s get on with it. Let’s go to World Beyond, and play with this awesome cast and crew, and give the fans some Rick hints and some old-school The Walking Dead world characters.”

RELATED: Jadis Reveals Rick Grimes Intel on The Walking Dead: World Beyond

Designed to shed light on the shadowy helicopter organization hovering over the universe since Season 8 of The Walking Dead, the 20-episode World Beyond is the grout joining the CRM mythology to the Rick Grimes movies. Sunday’s Episode 6, “Who Are You?”, is the first to provide answers about what happened during those six years skipped over after Rick’s disappearance in The Walking Dead‘s Season 9. 

“I was really thrilled with the way it worked out, and I hope that… I’m just excited to see what people think as we move forward because this is just the beginning,” said McIntosh, who joined the flagship as Jadis in Season 7. 

As fans await cameras to roll on the Walking Dead Movie delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 before missing a potential spring shooting start in 2021, McIntosh is “excitedly waiting like the rest of the fans to see what the delivery’s going to be and when we’re going to get to see it.”

“It would be fun to be involved. And Mr. Gimple has said it would make sense for Jadis to be there, but the wonderful world of The Walking Dead is ever moving forward, so we’ll see,” McIntosh said. “I don’t have anything to report on, unfortunately, just general excitement. And I’m so pleased that the fans at least get this storyline now [on World Beyond] to get to see her and hear about him.”

McIntosh added of Lincoln’s Rick: “We definitely will want to see him eventually. We want to see him. So any signs of Rick are a good thing to the fandom, I think.”

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD and stay tuned to ComicBook for coverage all season long. New episodes of The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2 air Sundays on AMC and AMC+.