'World Beyond' adds to mystery of Rick Grimes' disappearance with surprise 'Walking Dead' twist in new trailer

The pulsing whir of chopper blades has become a sort of trigger for Rick Grimes fans, with many still bereft of their favorite Survivor ever since he took a mystery helicopter trip to the horizon and out of sight midway through The Walking Dead’s ninth season.

Now, three years after ferrying Rick (Andrew Lincoln) away from the main series, the mysterious helo is back once more — this time as a tantalizing part of the setup for the second and final season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. The spinoff is set to return to AMC next month to complete its two-season story arc, and it’s bringing back a familiar face from the main series’ fateful helicopter rescue — that of Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), who may just hold all the answers to the long-dangling mystery behind Rick’s disappearance.

TWD fans still remember their last Rick Grimes sighting, with Jadis (aka Anne) getting an injured Rick aboard the chopper after he blew up a bridge (and wounded himself) in an attempt to stave off a Walker invasion. Since then, AMC has been turning the wheels behind the scenes on a series of upcoming Rick Grimes movies, meaning his story’s far from over — even if his fate, so to speak, has remained up in the air all this time.

Check out the trailer below:

The new World Beyond trailer finds Jadis holding a one-sided conversation with someone we never get to see. Could it actually be Rick Grimes? “I know that the Civic Republic is the last light of the world,” she says to the mysterious off-camera presence. “My purpose is to create a new era on this planet. Hope we get to catch up while I’m here.”

In teasing the new season of World Beyond (via TV Line), co-creator Scott M. Gimple said the spinoff isn’t shying away from addressing crossover themes left dangling in the main series. “[I]n our story, years have passed — we’ll get hints of what happened with that fateful helicopter ride and learn Jadis has new allies and alliances; she is a big part of connecting the CRM and Three Circles mythology that’s seen throughout all three series.”

With Rick set to make his own big return later on, it’s tough to imagine that his first post-departure sighting might occur anywhere in The Walking Dead universe that isn’t the film trilogy AMC’s been teasing for years now. Still, Jadis is the last person to see him alive, and the trailer does make a pretty big point of playing up the whole helicopter angle. Plus, she’s talking to someone…we just don’t know who.

At the very least, it looks as though we’ll definitely want to catch up with the spinoff’s final season if we want to keep our bearings in the wider TWD universe ahead of Rick Grimes' upcoming movie cycle.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond heads back to AMC, hopefully with some answers, when Season 2 premieres on Oct. 3.