The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Trailer Breakdown

AMC released the fiery first trailer for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, and it has hints about what to expect from the Walking Dead spinoff reuniting Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira). In the footage, we see Rick join the ranks of the Civic Republic Military — the mysterious three-rings group who flew Rick away from The Walking Dead back in season 9 — while Michonne heads north to find the long-lost husband she believed dead for six years. But so says the Grimes family mantra: “We’re the ones who live.”

The six-episode series will span those years gone by as it fills in the gaps to answer what came after Rick’s fateful helicopter flight with Jadis/Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh), and what became of Michonne since we saw her last on the series finale of The Walking Dead. Here, ComicBook breaks down the trailer and what it teases ahead of the February 25 series premiere on AMC and AMC+.

Where Is Rick Grimes?

The Walking Dead: World Beyond revealed that Jadis, now Civic Republic Military Warrant Officer Stokes, “gave the CRM something very valuable” in exchange for her new life in the Civic Republic: Rick Grimes. After Rick sacrificed himself by blowing up a bridge to save his family and friends from a walker horde, Jadis branded Rick a “B” and saved his life when she shuttled him away aboard a CRM helicopter. Their destination: the Civic Republic. 

“Consignee Grimes” was put to work culling walkers at a Civic Republic Cull Facility. At these abandoned arenas and stadiums converted into decontamination centers operated by CR military personnel, workers clear zombies on a mass scale to give the Civic Republic a foothold and reclaim entire states overrun by the dead.

The Civic Republic

The Civic Republic is located in post-apocalyptic Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This fortified city with a population of some 200,000 survivors is what the CRM calls “the last hope” and “the last light of the world.” The authoritarian Civic Republic Military — “the most powerful military on the planet” — defends this secret civilization and its precious resources, which includes energy, water, medicine, agriculture, manufacturing, and even a functioning economy. 

The Republic was once part of the Alliance of the Three, with its three-rings symbol representing allied communities in Portland, Oregon (population: 87,000), and Omaha, Nebraska (population: 97,407), plus its satellite, the Campus Colony (population: 9,671). However, the CRM eliminated the Omaha Safe-Zone and the Campus Colony as part of a tactical military operation ordered by CRM Major General Beale (Terry O’Quinn).

Major General Beale

The CRM commander is Major General Beale, a character who was mentioned as the superior officer of Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek (Julia Ormond) and Warrant Officer Jadis Stokes on The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Though he won’t physically appear until The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Beale ordered the tactical military operation that wiped out Omaha and the Campus Colony with a bioweapon on World Beyond.

Beale is also behind Project Votus, a decade-old secret program that involves studying live test subjects through death to further the CRM’s research on reanimation. The project classifies people as either “As” (zombie-bitten test subjects) or “Bs” (assets).

Operation Cobalt

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live trailer suggests that the CRM carried out Operation Cobalt, part of the U.S. Government’s “Sunset Protocol”: the military’s last-ditch effort to contain the spread of the Wildfire Virus that spread across the globe in 2010. The footage shows black helicopters bombing Atlanta during the outbreak in August 2010 — revisiting an event witnessed by Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) as they escaped the city in The Walking Dead season 2 episode “Chupacabra.”

The CRM

The Walking Dead: World Beyond episode “Quartervois” revealed that the authors of the Civic Republic’s Founding Compact granted the Civic Republic Military autonomy in 2010 because it was “imperative for the early survivalof the CR, as well as its stabilization in the years to follow.” It was agreed that a transition of power from military leadership to the Civilian Government would occur in ten years’ time; but a decade later, in 2020, Beale’s CRM requested an emergency delay of civilian oversight. 

The CRM claimed zombie herds overran and destroyed the Omaha Safe-Zone and the Campus Colony, but these were false flag operations ordered by Beale and carried out by the CRM to eliminate the Civic Republic’s allied communities and preserve their resources. The CRM massacred 110,00 people and used their deaths to stay in power.

Where Is Michonne?

The Walking Dead episode “What We Become” ended with Michonne heading north to find Rick after discovering his belongings inside a shipwrecked boat on Bloodsworth Island, Maryland. A log book documenting the ship’s journey revealed that it traveled from Tampa Bay, Florida, to Hopewell, Virginia, and then Bridgers Shipyard in New Jersey. Michonne was somewhere between Virginia and New Jersey when she happened across Aiden (Breeda Wool) and Bailey (Andrew Bachelor), a pair of stragglers trailing a sizable survivor caravan migrating in the same direction.

“You don’t want to go north. Not now,” intones the voice over of a woman named Elle (as indicated by subtitles). That may be because a massive zombie horde is impeding Michonne’s travels.

Bioweapon

The series finale of The Walking Dead: World Beyond saw the CRM plot a gas attack against the 87,000 survivors of Portland with the bioweapon that wiped out Omaha and the Campus Colony. It was explained the green liquid chlorine gas chemically bonds itself to moisture inside the body and triggers severebronchial spasms, causing the victims’ lungs to overproduce fluid and essentially drown them from the inside out. It’s worrying, then, that the trailer shows Michonne and Aiden trying to outrun a CRM helicopter that is spraying city streets with the lethal chlorine gas.

Rick’s Stuff and Things

The final scene of The Walking Dead season 11 showed a shoeless Rick put his belongings in a bag and throw it on a boat before he was recaptured by a CRM helicopter. The same boat and bag that Michonne happened across in season 10, which contained Rick’s cowboy boots, a journal, and a cellphone with a lowercase “rick” etched alongside Japanese lettering and drawings of Michonne and Judith. It’s Michonne’s traveling companion Nat (Matthew Jeffers) who translates the message written on Michonne’s phone: “Believe a little bit longer.”

Lt. Col. Okafor

World Beyond ended with Jadis arresting Lieutenant Colonel Kublek for treason before remanding her to the Health and Welfare Complex to be tried forArticle 94 of the Uniform Code of Civic Republic Military Justice. The Ones Who Live introduces Kublek’s replacement: Lt. Col. Donald Okafor (Craig Tate), a high-ranking leader of “the most powerful military on the planet.”

Warrant Officer Jadis Stokes

Once the junkyard-dwelling leader of the Scavengers, Jadis/Anne has spent the past few years ascending the ranks of the CRM. As Warrant Officer Jadis Stokes — a name borrowed from her former boyfriend Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam) on The Walking Dead — she’s unwavering in her belief that the Civic Republic is the last light of the world. “I can help usher in the new world better than you can,” Jadis once told Kublek. “I don’t have friends. I don’t have a child. I have myambition — and I have the Republic.” She may have saved Rick’s life all those years ago, but her loyalties lie with the CRM.

CRM Soldier Grimes

From Consignee Grimes to Soldier Grimes: look closely, and you’ll see Rick serving in the CRM ranks alongside Pearl Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt). As we saw on The Walking Dead coda, Rick has tried and failed to escape the Civic Republic and return to his family… only to be intercepted by a CRM pilot who reminded the fugitive: “It’s like he told you. There’s no escape for the living.” Those are likely the words of Major General Beale, who asks Rick a question: “Why are you here? Do you want to kill? Or do you want to die?”

“Look in my eyes, sir,” Rick responds. “You tell me.” Rick wants to live.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres Sunday, February 25, on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow on Facebook for more TWD Universe coverage.