Crossover plans already in the works for The Walking Dead spinoff 'World Beyond'

The Walking Dead: The World Beyond, the third series in AMC’s zombified TV universe, has been teased plenty since its announcement last year. So too has the other expansion in the TWD universe, Rick Grimes’ movie career. But how these multimedia projects will interact has been a bit of a question for horrorhounds hoping to see plenty of crossover in this undead world. Now, thanks to a conversation with Walking Dead chief content officer and World Beyond co-creator Scott M. Gimple, fans have a better idea of what kind of interaction their favorite characters will have with these new stories.

Speaking to EW, Gimple explained that the youth-centric show — featuring actors like Aliyah Royale, Alexa Mansour, Annet Mahendru, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston, and Nico Tortorella — will be forging its own path for a little while at least, but when Season 2 rolls around, all bets are off.

The shows, World Beyond and TWD, occur at a similar time (though World Beyond happens a bit earlier), so crossover is entirely possible. After discussing the mysterious helicopters shared by TWD, World Beyond, and Fear the Walking Dead, (“We’re going to be discovering this very big aspect to the world that we haven’t yet seen.”) Gimple spoke about other elements of crossover coming down the pike. “Though it is really cool to see how this different corner of the universe operates and the lives that they have been living all this time,” Gimple said, “it will be these little places that cross.”

“We’ve been talking about aspects of next season of World Beyond. There might even be a big aspect of crossover with one of the shows. That’s the other part of it is we have these plans, but we’ve got to execute them. That’s sort of next season. We’re still finishing up this season.”

So big things are coming in Season 2, eh? Looks like the main story may interact with the next generation more than previously believed. For those looking for a literary comparison regarding the level of interaction they may find later on, Gimple had a Shakespearean reference ready: “In some ways, World Beyond, it’s a big story and yet it’s sort of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Rick’s Hamlet, meaning the show and the movie touch upon some of the same things, but they’re not really that deeply related.”

The Walking Dead: World Beyond debuts on AMC this April.