Walking Dead Timeline Explained: When All 7 Shows Take Place

Summary

• The Walking Dead timeline is complex and consists of multiple spinoff shows that take place at different points in the ongoing story.
• The TV timeline has advanced at a faster rate than the comics, with longer time skips between seasons.
• The events in The Walking Dead series occur over a span of approximately 13 and a half years, while the spinoff Fear The Walking Dead covers a shorter period of time.

The Walking Dead timeline is complex, with its main series and spinoff shows occurring at different points in the ongoing story. Based on the comics by Robert Kirkman, AMC’s live-action The Walking Dead TV show took on a life of its own, adding new stories, original characters, and multiple spinoff series. The main series finished its final season, while Fear the Walking Dead ended after eight. The Walking Dead: World Beyond has come and gone, while more spinoffs arrived, including shows focusing on the franchise’s biggest characters, such as Maggie, Negan, Daryl Dixon, Michonne, and the overall protagonist, Rick Grimes.

The original Walking Dead comic series employs several extended time skips that advance the story. However, the Walking Dead timeline on TV has advanced faster, with the post-Savior leap in time being far longer than in the comics. And where Fear the Walking Dead initially charted the outbreak’s origins, the show soon caught up to the main series adaptation — before falling behind again. With multiple shows already twisting and turning around each other and even more zombie apocalypse goodness on the way, the convoluted world of The Walking Dead is trickier to follow than ever.

The Walking Dead Season 1

October 22, 2010 – October 27, 2010

The Walking Dead timeline begins with Rick Grimes getting shot while on duty as a cop and falling into a coma. The entire world goes wrong during his absence, and Rick awakens on day 59 of the zombie outbreak, with The Walking Dead season 1 taking place in mid-to-late 2010, relative to when the premiere episode aired. The story kicks off properly with Rick’s awakening and setting out to find his wife and son, only to find the world has fallen apart.

The plot takes Rick from the hospital to Morgan’s house, then toward an emotional reunion with his family, and finally to the CDC, where season 1 concludes. These events take place within one week, bringing the franchise to day 64—roughly nine weeks since the virus began wreaking havoc. This was one of the shortest time frames of any period in The Walking Dead. While the first scenes were before the outbreak, only five days had passed since Rick had woke up from his coma.

The Walking Dead Season 2

October 28, 2010 – November 15, 2010

The Walking Dead season 2 takes place mostly on the Greene family’s farm, where Rick’s group spends a handful of weeks camped up with Hershel and his children, including Maggie. These events move The Walking Dead timeline onto day 83 when Hershel’s farm is overrun, and the two groups officially join to head out into the unknown wilderness. This is also after Rick kills Shane and tells the group that they will follow his lead or he will leave them behind.

The year is still 2010, as day 83 takes place on November 15, 2010. In between The Walking Dead season 2 and 3, Negan’s first wife, Lucille, runs out of cancer medication, and he heads off to find help. On March 28, 2011, he accidentally destroys her chemo medication by forgetting to turn on the generator, and Lucille dies by suicide so Negan can move on with his life. This leads Negan to start the Saviors. During the time between the second and third seasons, Morgan’s son Duane also dies.

The Walking Dead Season 3

June 15, 2011 – July 4, 2011

The first jump in The Walking Dead timeline occurs between seasons 2 and 3, moving the story forward seven months as Rick’s group endures a harsh winter and hones their survival skills. When The Walking Dead season 3 begins, it is June 2011, at which point the characters find a prison to make their new home. The survivors clear out the prison, deal with the few inmates still there, and create a new home with a giant gate protecting them from the zombie hoards.

The season also introduces Michonne and the group finds their first major new community in Woodbury. This leads to their first battle against The Governor, which shows how dangerous the humans in the zombie apocalypse really are. The events in this season all happen in just over one week, bringing The Walking Dead timeline to 303 days since patient zero first spluttered over someone. The season ends with the survivors getting the jump on The Governor, setting up their big war the next season.

The Walking Dead Season 4

January 26, 2012 – February 6, 2012

Another time skip occurs between The Walking Dead seasons 3 and 4, lasting a period of six months while the prison community enjoys a spell of peace. During this time, Morgan Jones meets Eastman and learns the art of Aikido that’ll serve him well in future seasons, while The Governor recoups and encounters new followers. It is January 2012, and 520 days of the zombie apocalypse have passed. Rick’s survivors are in flu season and enduring a devastating outbreak.

The prison is abandoned altogether in The Walking Dead after The Governor attacks on January 30. His death happens only four days into the fourth season, and at that point, Rick’s people split up and reunite at Terminus, which is a bad move. With each second-half episode in The Walking Dead season 4 focusing on a different group, the narrative takes place over only one or two weeks. By the end of the season, the date is now February 6, 2012, with only 11 days passing throughout season 4.

The Walking Dead Season 5

February 6, 2012 – March 13, 2012

Picking up where The Walking Dead season 4 left off, season 5 deals with the Terminus cannibals, with Rick and his allies killing many of them on the first day of the new season. After this, they move on to their next destination. First up, they meet Father Gabriel just one day after fighting Terminus, and while he is antagonistic, he ends up joining up with them. Tyreese, Beth, and Bob died during the journey. However, after this, they finally find Alexandria, leading to a home they keep until the end.

Although it seems a lot happens during this season, it is actually another condensed installment. The Walking Dead season 5 largely takes place in just over one month. When Rick executes Pete after he accidentally kills Deanna’s husband, he lets everyone know he is in charge now, and they will listen to him if they want to survive the dangers outside their city. This moment happened on March 13, 2012, just five weeks after the premiere, bringing the show to day 567.

The Walking Dead Season 6

March 13, 2012 – May 3, 2012

There’s no time skip before The Walking Dead season 6, and the first half of this installment is even more constrained than before. The first nine episodes, from the premiere until “No Way Out,” focus on preventing a herd from attacking Alexandria and only span a handful of days. Episode 9, “No Way Out,” takes place on March 20, so it is just one week from the moment that Rick killed Pete in the season 5 finale and the last moment in the ninth episode of season 6.

A mini-skip of four weeks occurs during season 6’s mid-season break, with “The Next World” taking place on April 19, 2012. This introduces Paul “Jesus” Rovie to the group, and then the second batch of episodes covers a little over a week. The second half of season 6 sees the first foray into Negan’s Walking Dead arc. In the season finale, Negan captures the group and forces them to their knees as he plans to kill one of them. This happened on May 3, 2012, just two weeks after the midseason return.

The Walking Dead Season 7

May 3, 2012 – May 15, 2012

With The Walking Dead season 6 ending on the notorious Negan cliffhanger, there’s no gap between season 6’s finale and season 7’s premiere. In fact, The Walking Dead actually rewinds a few minutes to show who met the wrong end of Negan’s baseball bat, depicting the murders of Abraham and Glenn in brutal detail. Over 12 days, Negan’s Saviors continue to lean heavily on both Alexandria and Hilltop, while contact is made with the Kingdom, Oceanside, and the Scavengers.

An attempt to overthrow Negan goes wrong, thanks to the duplicitous Jadis. However, Rick finds allies in Ezekiel and The Kingdom and starts to build his army to battle Negan and the Saviors. This is one of the more compact seasons, as it has 18 episodes, but it only covers a total of 12 days since Glenn’s tragic death and sets up a big war between the two groups that plays out in the eighth season. By this time in The Walking Dead timeline, the show officially hits 630 days.

The Walking Dead Season 8

May 31, 2012 – June 7, 2012

Only 16 days have passed since the season 7 finale and Rick’s declaration of war. The Walking Deadseason 8 is now five months into 2012, and once again only charts a few days. This is the season where Rick takes the fight to Negan and the Saviors. Shockingly, this war is not prolonged. While it took months for Rick and his allies to beat The Governor in the past, the war with Negan lasted a total of six days, ending on June 5 when Rick chooses to let Negan live, but locks him up.

By the season 8 finale episode, the threat of the Saviors is over. Negan is put out of commission with a lifetime prison sentence. Alexandria, Oceanside, The Hilltop, and The Kingdom are all now working hand in hand. Maggie is preparing to give birth to her and Glenn’s child (Hershel Rhee). By this time, the finale takes place on June 7, 2012, and it has been 653 days since the zombie outbreak began. Following this event, the zombie series has the biggest time jump to date.

The Walking Dead Season 9

February 12, 2014 – January 30, 2021

In the first significant time jump, The Walking Dead timeline moves ahead 20 months to February 2014, with Alexandria and its allies enjoying their longest period of peace and prosperity thanks to Negan sitting in jail. The first five episodes of The Walking Dead season 9 take place in 2014 and span just over one month while the allied communities — now including the remaining Saviors — attempt to build bridges of both the literal and metaphorical kinds. The world has been awful for slightly more than 1,200 days.

This is when Rick Grimes “dies” in a fiery explosion on March 18, 2014. Eight months later, Michonne is pregnant and the events of “Scars” take place (November 1, 2014). Sixteen months after that, Daryl meets Leah and Dog while out in the wild searching for Rick, and they casually bicker with each other over the ensuing two years of sporadic forest meetings.

The WalkingDead season 9 timeline jumps all the way to October 18, 2020. Six years have passed since Rick’s assumed death, and Judith is now eight years old. Most of the rest of the season covers a short period of days when the survivors make first contact with the Whisperers. After Alpha’s severed head display in “The Calm Before,” there’s another jump before the finale lasting three or four months, taking The Walking Dead‘s narrative to day 3,812 and January 30, 2021.

The Walking Dead Season 10

August 15, 2021 – September 23, 2021

With time jumps happening more often now, The Walking Dead season 10 picks up seven months after the season 9 finale on August 15, 2021. However, things finally slow down somewhat, and the events of season 10 take place within a time frame of several weeks. This season sees the giant final battle with The Whisperers and the eventual rise of Negan to antihero status. It also sets up the show to head into the Commonwealth storyline and the final season.

As with the Saviors and Negan, the final battle with the Whisperers goes relatively quickly. The season started on August 15, and Negan killed Alpha on August 30, just 15 days later. On September 5, Daryl kills Beta, and the Whisperers War ends. The final episode of the season is “Here’s Negan” and its action takes place on September 23, 2021, meaning only six weeks have passed, and the day count is closer to 4,047 by this time.

The Walking Dead Season 11

September 24, 2021 – Summer 2023

The Walking Dead‘s final season picks up one day after the season 10 finale. The first nine episodes take place over the course of six days. After this, the first time jump occurs between “No Other Way” and “New Haunts,” which sees the show fast-forward a month in the future, leading to Carol’s discovery of Ezekiel’s condition while staying at the Commonwealth on October 31, 2021. The rest of the season keeps on having small time jumps as the story moves quickly to the end.

The Commonwealth storyline goes from September 24, 2021, to the final battle with Pamela Milton and her forces on April 10, 2022. This means the timeline for this season was seven months (day 4,247). However, the biggest time leap occurs at the end of The Walking Dead series finale, with a year passing between the defeat of the zombie hoard and the rebuilding of Hilltop and Alexandria. By its end, The Walking Dead takes place over 4,678 days — or just under 13 years.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 1

August 25, 2010 – September 9, 2010

Spinoffs begin to muddle when the Walking Dead shows take place. Billed as a prequel to the main series, Fear the Walking Dead begins slightly before its predecessor in the period of time when Rick Grimes was in a coma. This puts the series premiere on August 25, 2010, in real-world dates, then it covers approximately two weeks of story.

This takes Madison and her family from the moment they first notice the undead to their arrival at Victor Strand’s yacht on outbreak day 16. The series shows what happens to the world (at least in California) during the initial outbreak by focusing on Madison, Chris, Alicia, Nick, and more. It also introduced most of the characters who would carry the series through the first few seasons, although very few of them would last to the end of the show. The last day for this season was September 9, 2010.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 2

September 9, 2010 – September 30, 2010

The first half of Fear the Walking Dead season 2 continues straight from season 1 and only adds another week or so to The Walking Dead timeline. The first episode is on the very same day as the season 1 finale, and it moves on to show the families trying to survive together start to fall apart as some die and others end up separated. This all leads to the seventh episode, “Shiva,” which takes place on September 15, less than a week after the premiere.

When Fear the Walking Dead season 2 resumes from its midseason break with “Grotesque,” the action moves to Mexico but still only inches forward. The prequel is somewhere around day 37 at the season finale, “North,” with Rick still yet to awaken on the other side of the United States. This means the first two seasons of Fear the Walking Dead take place before anything happens in The Walking Dead timeline, showing the world falling apart into what Rick saw when he finally woke up.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 3

October 1, 2010 – October 27, 2010

Fear the Walking Dead season 3 picks up right after season 2’s cliffhanger ending, but then covers a slightly bigger expanse of over a month, as Madison and her family become embroiled in a post-apocalyptic battle between racist cowboys and Native Americans. By this time, the family has moved closer to the border and realizes that the apocalypse has ravaged everything and that the humans really are more dangerous than the walking dead hoards of zombies.

By the time the action ended, the Clark family had been separated by a dam explosion on day 64, which was October 27, 2010. This is a great moment for the third season of Fear the Walking Dead to end because, on the very next day, Rick Grimes wakes up from his coma in the main Walking Dead series. This fulfills the promise of the prequel to tell the story of what happened before the main series began and with the fourth season, it starts to run concurrent with its parent series.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 4

June 8, 2012 – November 18, 2012

After only covering a couple of months in the space of three seasons, Fear the Walking Dead hits the accelerator and winds up two years in the future, now set in mid-to-late 2012. It all starts with the first real crossover, as Morgan makes his debut on the spinoff series, with Jesus, Carol, and Rick visiting him and asking him to return with them. However, he refuses and sets out on a new journey, where he meets the characters that make up the new version of Fear the Walking Dead.

Fear the Walking Dead flashbacks show how Madison’s family settled on a baseball field during those two years but were forced to vacate under attack from an enemy group. Season 4’s main story begins on October 8, and spans several days in its first eight episodes. A month passes before “Close Your Eyes,” from which the rest of the season charts another week or so. At this point, Morgan joins them, and the season ends on November 18, 2012 (day 817).

Fear The Walking Dead Season 5

October 11, 2013 – December 12, 2013

By the time Fear the Walking Dead season 5 begins, Morgan and his new friends have spent almost a year trying to help others in need, landing the spin-off in late 2012. The Walking Dead is still in the interim between seasons 8 and 9 during this time. The first eight episodes of Fear the Walking Dead season 5 spread across a week, where the survivors land a plane in a radioactive area to help those trapped within and miraculously make their escape.

When the story resumes on day 1,199 (December 5, 2013), over a month has passed for Morgan’s band of heroes. Fear the Walking Dead season 5’s clash with Virginia then lasts a week, with the season 5 finale being on December 12. Dwight, who had joined from the main Walking Dead series, leaves to find Sherry, John and June get married, and in a shocking season finale moment, Virginia shoots Morgan and leaves him for dead, which makes it look like he finally met his end.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 6

January 23, 2014 – April 23, 2014

Left for dead by Virginia in Fear the Walking Dead season 5’s finale, Morgan returns in season 6, revealing five or six weeks have passed. From episode 1 to episode 9, a little under two months pass as Morgan gradually builds The Valley, and Virginia keeps her captives working tirelessly for the pioneers. Fear the Walking Dead season 6, episode 10, “Handle with Care,” continues the story following a short time jump, moving the action to April 14, 2014.

During this time, Morgan’s Valley, Strand’s Pioneers, and Sherry’s Outcasts have settled into a new regime without Virginia. The remaining six episodes of Fear the Walking Dead season 6 last around a week in the universe. The season ends with the shocking moment of someone setting off all the missiles and a seeming nuclear disaster is underway, with the survivors dying or finding a place to remain safe during this moment. The missiles were launched on April 23 (Day 1,338).

Fear The Walking Dead Season 7

April 23, 2014 – August 31, 2014

Fear the Walking Dead season 7’s timeline is very hard to follow, starting from season 6’s finale and stretching months into the future, butnever in chronological order. Alicia’s arm loss happens in conjunction with Teddy’s nuke attack from season 6, and Sarah wakes up with the other helicopter evacuees two days later. After another five days, Alicia awakens in the Franklin Hotel’s bunker.

Fifty days later — according to Will — is when the Fear the Walking Dead timeline properly begins, as the separated survivors do their best to navigate both zombies and nuclear radiation. From Will’s fateful encounter with Victor Strand in episode 1 to Alicia declaring war on the tower in episode 8 takes a little less than 100 days. This is evidenced by June and John’s chalkboard, the time Wendell went missing, and other small confirmed increments between episodes.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 8

July 15, 2021 – December 15, 2021

Fear the Walking Dead season 8 had a huge time jump, which almost aligned the series timeline with that of The Walking Dead. Fear the Walking Dead season 8 is the final installment of the spinoff series, released in two parts with six episodes a piece. While the first episode of the season was on the usual The Walking Dead timeline, the second saw a jump in the future by seven years. The first six episodes followed Morgan and Madison on their quest to rescue Mo from PADRE.

Morgan then leaves the series on July 29, 2021, wanting to find Rick Grimes again (seven years after Rick’s apparent death, which Morgan knows nothing about). Madison sets out to finish her story, which finishes off the series. In the series finale, Madison learns Alicia is still alive and reunites with her daughter, and they leave together. PADRE is no more, and the survivors rename it MADRE in honor of Madison, who everyone thinks is dead. The date here is December 15, 2021.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 1

August 25, 2020 – October 5, 2020

The Walking Dead‘s second spinoff takes place a decade after the onset of the zombie apocalypse. The first episode starts on August 25, 2020, concurrent with The Walking Dead seasons 10 and 11 but long after any material from Fear the Walking Dead. The “six weeks ago” prelude from The Walking Dead:World Beyond season 2 offers a rough idea of how long the Endlings’ journey from Campus Colony to CRM Facility One takes and, therefore, how much time passes during The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 1.

The show’s events kick off in the school community in “Brave,” and by the time the group leaves the school, it is August 27, and the CRM kills everyone remaining in the community one day later (August 28). This all happens in the premiere. Things start to stretch out after this, and the rest of the season lasts just over a month, with the season finale taking place on October 5 (which is Day 3,694).

The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2

October 5, 2020 – October 29, 2020

There’s no jump between The Walking Dead: World Beyond‘s seasons, with the first bleeding directly into the second. The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 2’s premiere specifies a timeline of six weeks, but by the finale, that changes to “two months ago.” That confirms The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 2 lasts three or four weeks, bringing The Walking Dead timeline up to date. The actual date of the final episode is October 29, 2020 (Day 3,719).

A post-credit scene shows that an incident at a French laboratory triggered the Walking Dead show’s zombie outbreak. The scientists attempt to fix their mistake but make it worse, resulting in faster zombie variants. The French scientists initially liaise with Dr. Jenner in the United States but are imprisoned or killed by survivors in their native country. The timeline of this event remains unknown and doesn’t play into the actual story of The Walking Dead: World Beyond.

Tales Of The Walking Dead Season 1

2011 – 2025

Tales of the Walking Dead is an anthology show that takes place within the greater Walking Dead universe. Therefore, the show jumps time periods quite often. The first story, covering Evie and Joe, takes place over the course of 55 days in 2011, beginning with Joe’s introduction and then his journey outside his bunker 50 days later. Blair and Gina’s story doesn’t follow a specific timeline, but it’s suggested that its time loop is happening in 2010, at the beginning of the apocalypse.

Dee (later known as Alpha of the Whisperers) and Lydia’s tale is set in 2012, with Brooke claiming they had been living on the steamboat for over a year. Amy and Dr. Everett’s story starts in 2020, which sees Dr. Everett, after 10 years in isolation, studying the walkers, come across another survivor. Davon’s tale begins in 2025 and takes place over seven weeks when counting flashbacks. Eric, Idalia, and Doña Alma’s story also takes place over an unspecified amount of time. All in all, the course of events in Tales of the Walking Dead spans 15 years.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1

June 20, 2029 – June 27, 2029

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 ees Maggie and Negan going to Manhattan to rescue her son Hershel, who was captured by a group led by a former Negan follower with the Saviors. Dead City featured a major time jump for the series, taking place around six years after TWD season 11 ended. This was shown mostly in the aging of Hershel, who was not a teenager, as well as the ability of Negan to anger an entirely new group of people with his antics.

This puts the series starting on June 20, 2029, for Maggie scouting The Croat (starting on Day 6,875). She finds Negan three days later, and by the time they make it to Manhattan and Maggie makes the devious trade, the date is June 27. This means the entire story takes place over the course of only one week. The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 will likely not have as major of a time jump as it will be about getting Negan out of captivity after Maggie traded him for her son.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1

Summer 2023

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon sees the popular character end up in France. There, he battles with some bad guys and ends up on a boat headed out to sea, gets kidnapped, and is planned to be used as a sacrificial human for experimentation. He escapes and helps lead a group of warriors against these people who seem to be repressing the survivors in France and experimenting on them for their own purposes.

At the end of The Walking Dead finale, Daryl left the main group, looking for Rick Grimes, but this detour took him off that mission. While the exact timeframe is unknown, it is estimated Daryl Dixon takes place less than a year after the season finale (summer 2023), at around the 4,380-day mark, thanks to comments by Isabelle about it being 12 years since the end of society. This should have put him in France by August 2023.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

August 27, 2020 – Summer 2023

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live focuses on the long-awaited turn of Rick Grimes and Michonne. Both characters left the series before its finale, but finally got to return and reunite. The Ones Who Live‘s timeline is arguably one of the clearest yet, giving some exact updates on when each part of the show occurs. The spinoff’s present time follows The Walking Dead season 11. The episode’s origins are in 2014, and flashbacks fill in some blanks along the way.

However, the main story itself starts in 2020 when Rick has been training with the CRM and starts working with Thorne, although Rick wants nothing more than to escape and return to his family. Luckily, one member of his family is coming for him as Michonne is on the way. Michonne finally reached Rick in theaAutumn of 2022. Rick and Michonne then succeed in bringing down the CRM and forcing change,which happens in the summer of 2023, after which they leave for home.

The Upcoming Walking Dead Spin-Offs

More Tales From TWDU

The most recently confirmed Walking Dead spinoff is another anthology miniseries exploring further tales from The Walking Dead universe. Not much is known about this TWD spinoff beyond the fact it’s been confirmed and ordered. More Tales From TWDU will be a six-episode series, and the tales could — and likely will — take place at various points in The Walking Dead timeline past and present.

Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol
is
The Walking Dead
‘s next major upcoming project.