Record scratch! An Easter egg “cameo” on The Walking Dead: World Beyond makes Beta (Ryan Hurst) the first character to appear on all three Walking Dead shows. As the second-in-command of Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) Whisperers on Seasons 9 and 10 of The Walking Dead, Beta’s mask made of walker flesh hides the face of a famous country musician. Ironically for Beta, the character who would die before being unmasked has now had his exposed face appear on The Walking Dead and spin-offs Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
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When World Beyond returns to the CRM Decontamination Center where Silas (Hal Cumpston) and Dennis (Max Osinski) work culling walkers for the Civic Republic Military in Season 2 Episode 4, “Family Is a Four Letter Word,” the album “Half Moon: Live in Concert” is visible. This same record appears in The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 14, “Look at the Flowers.”
In-universe, the musician is described as “a true American genius” and “the most prolific recording artist of our lifetime.” In a flashback to the early days of the zombie apocalypse in Season 10 Episode 22, “Here’s Negan,” Lucille (Hilarie Burton Morgan) wears a slightly visible “Half-Moon” concert t-shirt.
Fear Season 5 Episode 14, “Today and Tomorrow,” reveals Beta’s bare face for the first time on the cover of a vinyl record collected by country music fan Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades). Though we never learn Beta’s real name, Magna (Nadia Hilker) unknowingly listens to one of his songs in The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 5, “What It Always Is.”
The song is inspired by the music of Walking Dead alum Emily Kinney, who played Beth Greene until the character’s death in Season 5. AMC later officially released the song “I Went to the Well” from the “Half Moon: Live in Concert” album that has appeared on The Walking Dead and World Beyond.
This isn’t the first Easter egg “crossover” between those two series: World Beyond Season 2 Episode 3, “Exit Wounds,” introduces a character first mentioned in a Season 5 episode of The Walking Dead.
At the CR Research Facility where Dr. Leo Bennett (Joe Holt) and other scientists work to eradicate “empties” from the earth, his colleague is Dr. Terry Ellis (Allan Edwards). He’s the “T. Brooks Ellis” that Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) claimed to work for when purporting to be a scientist who worked for Ellis as part of the Human Genome Project.
New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond premiere Sundays on AMC; Season 11 of The Walking Dead returns February 20.
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