Ever since those mysterious helicopters first flew through the skies of The Walking Dead, fans have been curious about their intriguing secrets. This mystery only increased after they were involved in that gripping cliffhanger involving Rick's disappearance and The Walking Dead: World Beyond will address those questions.
After Anne brought one of those choppers down from above to save a dying Rick as they scooped the hero off to an undisclosed location, the speculation about the meaning of those three-rings reached fever pitch.
Online message boards were ablaze about the meaning of the three-ring symbol - it also appeared in Fear The Walking Dead - and while it's likely that the true location of Rick Grimes won’t be revealed until his standalone movie, The Walking Dead: World Beyond showrunner Matt Negrete did share a few details with us.
During a recent interview with Balls to promote the release of The Walking Dead: World Beyond on Amazon Prime, Negrete said that the new show will delve into some of the biggest questions that fans of The Walking Dead have about Rick's cliffhanger.
"In terms of the Rick of it all, we'll definitely be peeling back the layers of the CRM - we'll find out more about them. That will obviously happen in Season 1, but even more in Season 2. We'll really find out what this organisation is and there are certain things that we teased on The Walking Dead that will be answered.
When Rick was taken in the helicopter, there was a little bit of talk about about 'What are As? and 'What are Bs?' - that was a big question that fans had online - and we'll get some answers there (in World Beyond). We'll also probably get a good indication of where Rick was taken, I would say. I'll leave it at that, anything else I'd say could be a bit too spoilery! In a nutshell that's it," said Negrete.
As fans of The Walking Dead will know, Rick was last seen after he was blown into the river after destroying the bridge, only to wash up on a distant bank.
Desperately wounded, he’s found by Anne who has a business relationship of sorts with the CRM. After Anne calls the CRM over a walkie-talkie, she says “I have a B. Not an A. I never had an A. He’s hurt but he’s strong. Can you help him?”
The person that answers the CRM's walkie-talkie warns Anne “there’d be consequences if you tried something,” but eventually sets down the helicopter and whisks Rick away to a CRM facility where his life can be saved.
So, we had to ask Negrete about the next burning question.
What does The Walking Dead: World Beyond tell us about the CRM?
Here's what Matt Negrete had to say about the mysterious group, and what differentiates World Beyond from the other entries in The Walking Dead universe.
"In the creation of this show, it was taking elements of what works on the other shows that people loved but making sure it felt different. So, the horror element I wanted to maintain but at the same time, there's a different feel to this show because it's thinking on a larger scale. I think on The Walking Dead, for a long time it was about survival. Then it became about their community, then a war within the communities.
"It was really about a specific area, but on this show, we learn that our characters live in a place that's just outside of Omaha, Nebraska. We find out that they're part of an alliance that involves the city of Portland on the west coast, but we also find out that there's a third party in this alliance called The Civic Republic. They're somewhere else and very mysterious.
"Even though I think this show is specifically focused on a core group of characters, they're asking questions about this larger world and because they're involved in a part of this alliance that's sort of bigger than regional interests, it asks bigger questions in terms of what this alliance is, who are this mysterious third party (The Civic Republic), what do they want, and where are they located? There are bigger questions at play here. In that sense, it does feel different to The Walking Dead because they're asking questions about the world. The questions they ask and the answers they get will inform their identity and goals."
With Seasons 10 and 11 of The Walking Dead to come, a spin-off show for Carol and Daryl, Fear the Walking Dead Season 6, and the Rick Grimes movies all on the way, it has never been a more plentiful time to be a fan of The Walking Dead.
However, Negrete does know how The Walking Dead: World Beyond will end and how it will crossover into the expanded universe.
"When Scott Gimple and I created the show - before we even approached the story - we approached it from a character standpoint. We thought 'where would we like to see these characters start and end?' in terms of their identity and who they are.
"In terms of the story itself, I'll say right now that I'm neck-deep with the writers on Episode 7 of Season 2, so we have a pretty good idea of how it's going to end. We know what we're building towards in Episode 10 of Season 2 and we're almost there. It will pack a wallop, we're going towards something pretty big," he said
The Walking Dead: World Beyond will premiere on Prime Video from Monday, October 5, and you can check out the trailer for the show right here.
Clip via Amazon Prime Video UK
