AMC’s The Walking Dead finished on season 11, with its future now in a variety of spin-offs — here are how many years passed since the zombie apocalypse first began in TWD’s timeline. Now that The Walking Dead is over, there’s no better time to look back at the timeline. Working out how much time passes in The Walking Dead is possible thanks to The Walking Dead season 10s long-awaited Negan origin episode, “Here’s Negan”, which even featured a look at the world before the zombie virus outbreak to give viewers their first full taste of whom the leader of the Saviors used to be before The Walking Dead’s apocalyptic timeline. As it turned out, he was an ex-gym teacher struggling to find work, but when the zombie apocalypse kicked off and his wife died from cancer, Negan stripped away his inhibitions and became a villain.
The flashbacks gave a clear frame of reference for when these tragic events occurred in Negan’s The Walking Dead timeline, and they also helped to shed some light on how many years have passed in The Walking Dead’s timeline. It’s interesting that it took until the last episode before the show’s eleventh and final season for it to nail down a specific timeframe for how many years have passed in TWD. Up until now, it was a bit more open to interpretation. The biggest clues were found by looking at the aging of characters like Carl and adding up all the specified time skips that have transpired thus far. These things had to finally be examined because how many years have passed is never something that’s been discussed by The Walking Dead’s characters (likely due to the fact that days and months have little importance in a post-apocalyptic world).
How Many Years Have Passed In The Walking Dead Timeline
Going by the reveals in TWD season 10, the world fell apart around 13 years before the finale. The sequence about Negan being beaten up by a criminal was set 12 years before TWD’s late-season-10 and early-season-11 timelines. At this point, zombies were already everywhere. Then, the show went back six weeks further to him trying to help Lucille (Hillarie Burton Morgan) with her cancer treatments while also trying to keep their home safe from the walkers outside. Later, a flashback to a moment in Lucille’s life from seven months prior to the treatments showed the two living together ahead of The Walking Dead’s apocalypse. This confirms that the characters in the show have been fighting for their lives against the zombies between 12 and 13 years as of TWD season 11.
When looking back at other time skips and rather accurate records that fans have composed for The Walking Dead timeline, this figure isn’t all that surprising. The first several seasons played out across a somewhat brief period of time, and it wasn’t until much later that the series started delivering large time jumps, the biggest of which being the one that happened early in The Walking Dead season 9, which leaped forward by six years. All things considered, it’s good that Walking Dead fans don’t have to rely on unofficial timelines anymore.
How Many Years Between TWD and Fear The Walking Dead
While The Walking Dead’s official timeline now spans almost 13 years, Fear the Walking Dead puts it back just slightly further. Fear the Walking Dead‘s origins in season 1 show the earliest days in The Walking Dead’s timeline, with its pilot episode taking place just a few weeks before TWD’s timeline with Rick really begins. Since the official timelines go back earliest in 2010, the amount of time that has passed when including both The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead is still about 13 years.
Where Walking Dead: World Beyond Fits In TWD’s Timeline
The Walking Dead: World Beyond is the latest spinoff series to come from The Walking Dead franchise, and the limited series focuses on the first generation to grow up during the zombie apocalypse. Several TWD characters appear or are referenced in the show, such as Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). Unlike Fear the Walking Dead, the events of World Beyond happen concurrently with TWD, happening alongside seasons 10 and 11. Therefore, World Beyond happens a while after FTWD.
The second season of World Beyond sheds some light on how much time passes during the series, with season 1 spanning about 6 weeks. World Beyond season 2 happens over the course of 3 to 4 weeks. The TV show is meant to be a limited series, so season 2 will be the final installment of World Beyond. Since World Beyond is happening at the same time as The Walking Dead, the two shows are connected by the Civil Republic Military, which is the helicopter organization that flew away with Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead series finale.
What Year Is It In TWD Now?
The Walking Dead series finale saw Rick being forced to surrender by a CRM helicopter, the Commonwealth’s tyrannical reign at an end, and Daryl and Michonne both separately searching for Rick. With several new spinoffs on the way, it’s integral to know what year The Walking Dead ended, and therefore, when these spinoffs will start. Since it has been 12-13 years since the initial zombie outbreak, The Walking Dead ends in either 2022 or 2023, meaning the miniseries Rick & Michonne will likely start during the same year.
The Maggie and Negan spinoff, The Walking Dead: Dead City, will take place in NYC, but it’s unclear how the unlikely duo gets there, nor how long the series will cover. The same goes for the Daryl Dixon spinoff, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which will be set at ground zero for the zombie outbreak, France. Likely, the latter two spinoffs will be set at least a year in the future, as these The Walking Dead characters have a long way to journey from the Commonwealth to their respective locations.
