The Walking Dead In Order: How To Watch Every Series Chronologically & By Release Date

Although The Walking Dead original series began in 2010 and lasted for eleven seasons, the franchise expanded to include several spinoffs and sequels, changing how to watch The Walking Dead ​​​​​​in order. The franchise has the first series, The Walking Dead, and thirteen spinoff series over the following years, some of which are multi-season shows while the others are shorter web series. Overall, this means that fourteen series in total take place in The Walking Dead world, along with the original comics written by Robert Kirkman and several video games.

There is no single way to watch The Walking Dead and its spinoffs. Viewers can start anywhere and still have an enjoyable experience. The Walking Dead universe is an exhilarating and gory world in which zombies reign, and fear is always top of the mind. Viewers are sure to be thrilled and disgusted no matter what they watch. Plus, the franchise has several great characters that remain popular across the series they appear in. However, spoilers are an issue audiences may want to consider when stepping foot into The Walking Dead.

How To Watch The Walking Dead Franchise In Chronological Order

There's A Lot Of Overlap Between The Shows

Although the various The Walking Dead shows have been released to audiences in a certain order, that order does not reflect the chronology of the universe. For example, the events of The Walking Dead are not actually the first to occur in the franchise, despite the fact that it came out first. In reality, if an audience member wanted to experience The Walking Dead universe in chronological order, they would not only have to watch the series out of release order, but would actually have to split up their watching season by season.

Because the franchise includes web series, the experience would exceed format as well as release order. First, The Walking Dead franchise has fourteen series and spinoffs. In release order, they are as follows:

The release order of The Walking Dead seems simple on the surface, though there is, of course, a considerable amount of overlap. The Walking Dead ran from 2010 to 2022, meaning that the majority of the spinoff series were released during its run. However, watching the franchise in chronological order is even more complex due to time-jumps and other irregularities. For example, while Fear the Walking Dead was initially a prequel, several key events ran simultaneously to the core show by the time it concluded.

To watch The Walking Dead in chronological order, view in the following order:

How To Watch The Walking Dead Shows In Release Date Order

Watching Season-By-Season Requires Plenty Of Jumping Between Shows

The most common order to watch The Walking Dead shows is in order of release date. For those who have been with the franchise since the beginning, this is likely the way in which they watched, and furthermore, this is the order that The Walking Dead creators likely wrote in.

Once again, there is no proper way to watch The Walking Dead, but this is undoubtedly the most popular way to view it, and it might make the most sense as a general audience member. Though this order does not reflect the franchise's timeline, it does still make complete sense, and also, traces the franchise's history.

In release order:

The Best Order To Watch The Walking Dead And Its Spinoffs

Loosley Following The Release Order Seems To Be The Best Way To Enjoy The Walking Dead

There are definitely pros and cons to how one watches The Walking Dead franchise. If a viewer starts randomly with The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, then they will likely understand the series, but not the nuance of Daryl's character. Therefore, the best options are to either watch in chronological order or release date order. However, these also come with benefits and takeaways.

For one, if a viewer watches The Walking Dead chronologically, then they will never become confused about the timeline. However, they may lose out on the magic of starting with The Walking Dead, and will ultimately have to wait to enjoy the original series' characters. Spoilers may also occur.

On the other hand, if an audience member watches The Walking Dead in release order, there is a lot of planning that takes place. As seen above, the intersection between the release of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead is confusing near the end of the two series, as the seasons were split into different parts.

Though this is how live audiences may have watched it, this method isn't completely conducive to streaming or binging. If watched in order of release date, there would definitely be a lot of skipping around and potential confusion based on where the viewer last left off. Overall, the best way to watch The Walking Dead franchise is most likely to take it one series at a time, vaguely in release order. This means a viewer would probably benefit from entering the franchise with The Walking Dead first.

Then, they could delve into Fear the Walking Dead, Tales of the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Dead City, Daryl Dixon, and eventually, The Ones Who Live. By watching in this way, viewers can keep their series and spinoffs straight and maintain focus on just one thing. Though this could potentially confuse the timeline, a simple internet search can provide viewers with the information they're after.

Why The Walking Dead's Timeline Is Hard To Pin Down

The Amount Of Time-Jumps And Prequel Spin-Offs Having Different Pacing Confuses TWD Timeline

The Walking Dead's timeline is incredibly difficult to pinpoint due to how many series there are. The main show alone suffers from multiple time skips, with the first nine seasons all taking place within around three years before the finale jumps to nearly a decade later. There is no clear way of definitively nailing The Walking Dead's timeline, with much of it being up for interpretation. It is possible to get a vague idea of when things are happening, but there is no exact science around specific dates and sometimes even years.

Dead City intentionally makes its timeline vague, as it obviously happens after the main show, but doesn't clarify how many years have passed. This makes it much harder to know where the new spinoffs take place timeline-wise and creates confusion about when a crossover could theoretically take place in the universe. With how difficult it is to accurately follow the show's timeline, it does leave flexibility in terms of how the audience watches it. This reinforces the idea that watching one show at a time is likely the best way to experience such a complicated franchise.

Where The Future Of The Walking Dead Franchise Fits

There is already a staggering amount of content in The Walking Dead, but AMC's hit zombie franchise still isn't slowing down. With the conclusion of The Walking Dead on season 11, the main story moved forward with three spin-offs focusing on fan-favorite characters from the main show: Daryl Dixon, Dead City, and The Ones Who Live. Currently, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is being billed as a miniseries, meaning that season 2 of Rick Grimes and Michonne's adventures after the end of TWD shouldn't be getting a season 2.

There are currently two confirmed upcoming seasons of The Walking Dead shows, which are, of course, the second seasons of Daryl Dixon and Dead City. Season 2 of Daryl Dixon was released in September 2024, with the title TWD: Daryl Dixon—The Book of Carol. The title reveals that Carol will be returning to reunite with her closest friend in The Walking Dead universe. A third season of Daryl Dixon is coming in 2025.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 doesn't yet have a release date but is expected to release in 2025, provided there are no delays. Filming is already ongoing, so a release date will likely be cemented once it's wrapped. However, one thing that is confirmed about both is that, like all the post-season-11 spinoffs, they will take place after the events of The Walking Dead.

How The Comics Fit Into The Timeline

The Main Series Lines Up With The Comics In A Condensed Format

The important thing to note about The Walking Dead franchise is that almost everything is new stories other than the main original series. Everything from Fear the Walking Dead to Dead City and Daryl Dixon had nothing to do with the comic book stories, so those do not come into effect when comparing the comics to the TV show. However, the main series followed the main comic book storylines, with only changes to Walking Dead character fates altering the stories.

The Walking Dead TV series had 11 seasons, and the 193 comic issues were divided into 32 graphic novels, each with a specific storyline. The start of the series mostly stuck with the comics, as season 1 focused on the first graphic novel. The big change was allowing Shane to live longer than he did in the books. The second season mostly focuses on the end of the first graphic novel and the events of the second one, which both lead to the prison. However, this is where things started to skip forward.

The third season saw the group setting up a base in the prison, and this stretched to the fourth season, which included the battles with The Governor. These two seasons told the story that played out throughout several books, as the group entered the prison in the third graphic novel and the battle with the Governor ended in the eighth, allowing the TV show to condense the events that happened in the prison to just the necessity.

The fifth season saw the battle against Terminus, the introduction of Father Gabriel, and the events at the Grady Memorial Hospital. This lines up with similar stories from the ninth through the 12th volumes, when things finally moved to Alexandria (the second half of season 6 of The Walking Dead). In season 6, Rick and his survivors settle into Alexandria, which plays out in several volumes, with the two lining up again in the finale of season 6 and the end of volume 17 when Negan kills Glenn.

The war with Negan occurs in the seventh and eighth seasons of The Walking Dead TV show and from volumes 18 through 21 in the comics. This leads to the Whisperer's War, featured in nine and ten of the TV series and volumes 22 through 27 in the comics. The final storylines conclude with the Commonwealth battle, which takes place in the last season of the series and the last three volumes of The Walking Dead comics.