Throughout The Walking Dead's eleven seasons, the show kept the true origins of the zombie virus close to its chest, leaving its mystery under lock and key. Although fans of the popular series spin-off, World Beyond, finally got to know that the zombie virus originated in a biomedical facility in France, potentially as a result of a science experiment gone wrong, in AMC's The Walking Dead, the zombie virus mostly played out in the background as more of a stepping stone for its character-driven story.
In the show's earlier seasons, Walkers were an unstoppable threat that terrified not only the show's characters as they struggled to survive in its hostile and cruel world, but also viewers who were captivated by the reveal that, no matter what Rick and the gang did to avoid becoming a flesh-eating corpse, airborne particles of the virus caused them to become an asymptomatic carrier despite survivors learning to adapt and fight off the infected. Some fans might agree that some of the best storylines in the series came early on in each show when The Walking Dead initially dove into developing its complex characters and the lengths the group was willing to go to survive in the post-apocalyptic world due to the dreaded presence of the walkers, which seemed to teeter away as its seasons went on. Now, the comic book name of the virus offers up a more accurate representation of the horrific disease.
The Walking Dead’s Virus Being Called “The Walking Death” Is a Lot More Credible
As reported by Screen Rant, the zombie virus' name was disclosed in The Walking Dead Deluxe #109's backup story called Small Bites, written by Derek Hunter. This particular storyline tells the story of Ezekiel's tiger, Shiva, who he rescued as a zookeeper before the apocalypse when she fell into her concrete moat, is actually an alien that came from space to earth in a bid to stop the release of the dreaded virus (and no, I'm really not making that up.)
However, with alien kitty cats aside, in the comic issue, Shiva reveals that the virus is called 'The Walking Death', and fans will wonder why it was never called that in the TV series, as it perfectly describes what happens to people who become infected. In The Walking Dead, the zombie virus was called the Wildfire Virus, likely due to how quickly it spread across the globe, but it does lose a lot of its fear factor, so it's unclear why it wasn't named the same as the comic book, or something even worse, since it played a huge role in the series.
Recently, The Walking Dead's co-creator, Robert Kirkman, revealed that he almost didn't include the loyal feline while creating the comic books as it might be perceived as "too weird", but then purposely made Ezekiel's pet tiger, Shiva, harder to adapt for the TV show. Sadly, Shiva met a grisly end in both the comics and the show, leaving many fans with yet another trauma to carry around with them, all thanks to Kirkman.
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 will be released on May 4, 2025, with Daryl Dixon season 3 arriving sometime in the autumn of this year.
