The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Liveis the latest and arguably most anticipated spin-off in the growingThe Walking Deadfranchise. It’s also already thehighest-rated one to date. The post-apocalyptic series centers around Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira). Rick was rescued by Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) and taken to the Civic Republic Military (CRM), while Michonne is convinced he’s still alive and desperately searching for her husband to bring him home.
However, given the many spin-offs to the original series and the time jumps included in the various shows, one confusing aspect ofThe Ones Who Liveis how it ties into the main series in terms of the timeline. When does this all take place?
A Look Back at the Events Leading Up to The Ones Who Live
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
Rick departsThe Walking Deadin Season 9, presumed dead after a bridge explosion. This occurs about three-and-a-half years into the onset of the apocalypse (yes, only three years had gone by for the entire run of the show up to this point). The first event in the series – Rick awakening from a 4-5-week coma to discover that the world as he knew it had ended – occurs in 2010, the same year the show started in real life. This means when Rick exited, airlifted away by Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), unbeknownst to his friends and family, it was about2013.
There’sa time jumpby the end of the ninth season of about eight months, judging from the fact that Michonne is very visibly pregnant with RJ, Rick’s biological child. So, it’s potentially2014by this time.
The story skips ahead another year and a half when it follows Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) search for Rick, convinced his best friend is still alive. As fans will recall, this is when he meets Leah (Lynn Collins) and Dog. He develops a relationship with Leah for several years, part of a storyline where members of the group spend time apart from one another. Thus, this will likely occur between2015and2017(give or take).
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Before the end of the ninth season, there’s a six-year total time jump, putting us at about2018or2019. This is clear because Judith is now roughly eight or nine years old, and the character is now played by Cailey Fleming while RJ is a young child. In total, then, at this point, it’s about six years since Rick has been gone. Before the Season 9 finale, time jumps again another three or four months, but nothing significant.
By Season 10, there’s another short half-year time jump, possibly bringing us into2020or even2021. From there, all the events through this season take place in the present time, so there’s a bit of a slowdown here. Michonne leaves at the end of Season 10 to try to find Rick. This means she begins her journey close to seven years after Rick disappeared, sometime between2020 and 2021.
The final season ofThe Walking Deadcontinues on the same timeline, but the ending skips ahead a year as we see how things are shaping up at the new Commonwealth after the group haswon their fightand taken over. That would make the end of the show about2022, which is the actual year the show ended.
WhenThe Walking Dead: The Ones Who Livekicks off in epic fashion for its first episode called “Years,” it is five years after the bridge, so it’s about2018. Rick has already been under the thumb of the CRM for many years and discloses that it’s not the type of place you can leave. He struggles with his place as a worker for the city and is haunted by dreams of Michonne, Judith, and Carl. (Remember, he doesn’t even know RJ exists).
He is seen trying to escape in what is apparently his fourth attempt. For fans who remember the end scene ofThe Walking Deadwith Rick by the water wearing a CRM jacket, CRM Lieutenant Colonel Donald Okafor (Craig Tate) later recalls that as Rick’s “escape number three.” Rick is starting to feel defeated and losing his fight.
After a casual chat with his friend Esteban (Frankie Quinones), Rick decides that relenting to become a CRM soldier might afford him better opportunities to escape. The episode jumps through time as Rick undergoes training. After the montage where Rick learns everything from martial arts to piloting a helicopter, Okafor notes that Rick has been training for a year alongsidenew character Pearl(Lesley-Ann Brandt). That means we’re now into2019, possibly2020,in this show’s timeline.That coincides with the time Michonne headed out to look for Rick onThe Walking Dead.
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Time continues to pass indefinitely, though it’s hinted that at least another year goes by. Right before trying to escape (again), Rick references “all the years of training” and “the talks with Okafor, playing the good soldier,” which means it’s likely2021, possibly already2022, at this point. This is right around when the group back home lives it up in The Commonwealth.
Following his big fight with Okafor, the commander reveals that he wants to reconvene in a year in Omaha to set up a new base there, and he wants Rick and Pearl to be project leads. In a later scene, fans learn from a TV news report that the city of Omaha has fallen, suggesting that a year has passed. We’re now at about2022-2023. In the plane in the final scene, Okafor says to Rick, “It has been a good year,” confirming the timeline is about a year after the big fight.
By the end of the episode, a title card indicates “now,” suggesting the present day, several years after Michonne started looking for Rick, finally bringing the timelines together. This is confirmed in the final moments of the episode. Okafor is shot, and Rick’s plane is barrelling down. As he and others scramble to get out of the wreckage alive, he is almost killed by a masked person with a katana. She pulls his helmet off him, and a stunned Michonne looks on at her husband. The timelines have officially synced, and we’re in the present day, which would be about the same timeThe Walking Deadended and 13.5 years since the apocalypse began.
The Ones Who Live Timeline Relative to Other Spin-offs
The latest spin-off,The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, takes place immediately following thefinale ofThe Walking Dead, so it’s about 2022 or 2023 in this series, given that Daryl goes through various events before arriving in France.The Walking Dead: Dead City, meanwhile, skips ahead a few more years. This is confirmed through Hershel, who is now a teenager (about 16) in that show and was about 10 or 11 at the end ofThe Walking Dead.
It can be presumed thatThe Walking Dead: World Beyondtakes place concurrently withThe Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’spresent-day timeline and the latter part of the main series. Beginning long after the apocalypse has already started, the show, one of theleast popular spin-offs, centers around teenagers who grew up in this new world. The aforementioned CRM news broadcast about the bombing in Nebraska confirms the timeline sync since that bombing was central to the beginning of the plot on Omaha-setThe Walking Dead: World Beyond. Moreover, Jadis’ involvement in the CRM and role as a primary antagonist on that show would suggest that the timelines are also in sync.
Fear the Walking Dead, meanwhile, begins slightly before the events inThe Walking Deadand is the first spin-off that shows characters experiencing the outbreak just as it’s beginning (save for episodes of non-linear spin-offs likeTales of the Walking Dead). But it’s only by a month or two. That show continues through to end around the same time asThe Walking Dead. The show’s concurrent timeline is apparent throughout, particularly with the departure of Morgan (Lennie James) fromThe Walking Deadin Season 8. He leaves and travels west to escape the trauma he endured, crossing paths with the characters onFear the Walking Dead,who are dealing with their own parallel challenges.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Livewill premiere on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 9 pm ET/6 pm PT on AMC, and streaming on AMC+ will also be available at 3 a.m. ET / 12 a.m. PT on Sundays.
