The Walking Dead started life as one show about Zombies but has grown into a sprawling undead empire that features six spinoffs. If you want to watch the show in release or chronological order before Daryl Dixon season two drops, then look no further.
When The Walking Dead graphic novel was adapted for the small screen by AMC, nobody quite knew just how big this post-apocalyptic world would grow. Since the show premiered in 2010, there have been eleven seasons and six spinoff shows—that’s a lot of walkers to keep track of.
With each Walking Dead spinoff bringing aboard new characters and revisiting familiar ones, the timelines often intersect, and between the mix of prequels and sequels, watching The Walking Dead in its entirety is a lot more complicated than you think—and that’s not even considering the various webisodes that have been added to the canon.
Next up on the list of Walking Dead releases is the second season of Daryl Dixon’s spinoff, debuting on September 29, 2024. With that in mind, we’ve dissected the ways to watch the entire TWD franchise in both chronological and release order, as well as a secret third way that might just save a lot of hassle as you travel through the post-apocalyptic world.
How to watch The Walking Dead in release order
To watch The Walking Dead in release order, start with the first few seasons of the original series that came out in 2010.
Here’s how to watch The Walking Dead in release order:
- The Walking Dead Season 1-5
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 1
- The Walking Dead Season 6
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 2
- The Walking Dead Season 7
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 3
- The Walking Dead Season 8
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 4
- The Walking Dead Season 9
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 5
- The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 1-16
- The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 1
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 6
- The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 17-22
- The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 1-8
- The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 1-8
- The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 9-16
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 9-16
- Tales of the Walking Dead Season 1
- The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 17-24
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 1-6
- The Walking Dead: Dead City
- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 7-12
- The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol
By watching in release order, there are a lot more episodic break-ups throughout the journey, though there’s more time spent on the original series at the beginning. The easiest it gets is when you hit Daryl Dixon and Dead City. But if you’re looking to experience the show as fans did during the first wave, then this is the best way forward.
Best for: Catching up with the franchise in the same way that everyone else first experienced it.
How to watch The Walking Dead in chronological order
By watching The Walking Dead in chronological order, the main series is skipped by starting with the first three seasons of the prequel show, Fear the Walking Dead.
Here’s how to watch The Walking Dead in chronological order:
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 1-3
- The Walking Dead Season 1-8
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 4
- Tales of the Walking Dead Season 1
- The Walking Dead Season 9
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 5
- The Walking Dead Season 10
- The Walking Dead: The World Beyond Season 1-2
- The Walking Dead Season 11
- Fear the Walking Dead Season 6-8
- The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
- The Walking Dead: Dead City
There’s a lot of season-switching, regardless of whether viewers take the chronological or release order route. As mentioned above, several of these shows overlap with their characters and arcs, making it a seriously big undertaking to remain truly faithful to the in-show timeline.
That said, if fans are dead set on wanting to experience the story as it lays, this is the best way of doing so, beginning with Fear the Walking Dead.
Best for: Watching the zombie takeover unfold in real time, just as the characters experienced it.
What’s the easiest way to watch The Walking Dead?
The simplest and easiest way to watch The Walking Dead in order is to work through season by season, starting with the original series and ending with the newest, The Ones Who Live.
Here’s the easiest way to watch The Walking Dead:
- The Walking Dead Seasons 1-11
- Fear the Walking Dead Seasons 1-8
- The Walking Dead: World Beyond Seasons 1-2
- Tales of the Walking Dead Season 1
- The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
- The Walking Dead: Dead City
The Walking Dead Seasons 1-11
The mainline Walking Dead series was released in 2010 and continued to run for over a decade. In that time, the show mainly focused on Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his band of survivors, kicking off when Rick awakens from a coma in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
From tracking down his wife and son to moving from sanctuary to sanctuary, The Walking Dead follows Rick and his ever-rotating group as they attempt to find a single safe place.
During the course of the show, characters from the various spinoffs pop up, though it mainly sticks with the central group and takes place in Georgia. Since there’s such a large cast and decade-spanning story, it’s best to do a dedicated viewing for this one, if you want to keep your sanity.
Fear the Walking Dead Seasons 1-8
Arriving five years after The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead actually begins far earlier than the events of the main show. As such, Fear the Walking Dead covers the early days of the zombie takeover, and takes the perspective outside of Georgia to Los Angeles and Mexico.
The most notable crossover event that takes place in Fear the Walking Dead comes from the inclusion of Morgan Jones (Lennie James), who is one of the first non-dead people Rick stumbles across after leaving the hospital in the main series.
Fear the Walking Dead is a great mix-up from the other shows, taking the audience to earlier days and a fresh environment. Plus, by the time you’re done with the main show, you’ll be looking for a change in scene and a group of new survivors.
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The Walking Dead: World Beyond Seasons 1-2
World Beyond arrived in 2020, quite a long time after The Walking Dead was in full swing. Taking place in Nebraska, World Beyond focuses on a group of kids who’ve spent most of their childhood growing up in the new, zombie-infected world.
If you’re looking out for cameos, you’ll find it in the form of Jadis, a community leader who first appears in The Walking Dead and later comes back in The Ones Who Live.
Putting a kid-based spin on the main series is an interesting twist, and is a good change for audiences who might be looking to explore the apocalypse from a younger (and arguably more heart-breaking) perspective.
Tales of the Walking Dead Season 1
Tales of the Walking Dead is perhaps one of the easiest one-off shows that spun out from the main series, since it unfolds in an anthology-style format.
This means that each “episode” takes place from a different perspective, whether it’s a man embarking on a 700-mile road trip in zombieland, or a pair of co-workers who get caught in a time loop. Yeah, time loop. Tales of the Walking Dead takes bigger creative risks, introducing supernatural and mysterious elements that combines the zombie genre with other, more ambitious storylines.
Great if you’re looking for a change-up from the regular, chronological-style spinoff shows. There’s only one season, too, so it doesn’t take up much time in the overall viewing order and is a chance for a real breather by way of format.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
The Ones Who Live strips back the Walking Dead to its most basic form: Rick’s story. After Rick supposedly bit it in The Walking Dead Season 9, it was later revealed that he’d actually survived the bombing on the bridge. As such, The Ones Who Live is a love story that takes place several years after the events of The Walking Dead Season 9 and beyond.
It follows Rick’s enlistment into the Civic Republic Military, as well as Michonne’s mission to get him back. It takes Rick years to work his way up the ranks, and he loses a few things along the way too. (Comic book fans were very pleased about that one!)
Upon release, The Ones Who Live became the highest-rated Walking Dead series of the bunch, meaning it was something of a return to form for the franchise after all these years. It’s also refreshing to see Rick and Michonne back in action at this point, since it would have been a few shows ago that we last saw the dynamic power couple.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
Daryl Dixon sees…well, Daryl Dixon wash up on the shores of France after the events of The Walking Dead Season 11.
He’s rescued by a strange religious community, and is tasked with escorting a young boy across the country. Why? According to one nun, the kid is the key to saving humanity.
Daryl Dixon is getting a Season 2 (subtitled Book of Carol), but that doesn’t mean it’s heavily tied back to the original show. It takes place in a whole new country, meaning you can add it to your Walking Dead marathon with some sense of ease once you’ve finished the other, bigger shows.
The Walking Dead: Dead City
Dead City comes as a sequel to the main series and takes place in Manhattan. After Maggie’s son Hershel gets kidnapped by a vindictive gang, she enlists the help of her former nemesis Negan to get him back.
At only six episodes and taking place in the derelict city, Dead City is a great follow-up for those who found entertainment in the later seasons of The Walking Dead, particularly when it came to Negan’s storyline.
Essentially, it takes place a few years after The Walking Dead Season 11, so you don’t need to rely too heavily on remembering the main show’s earlier seasons.
By going this viewing route, you’ll be able to enjoy each season at its fullest, getting to know the characters and sticking with plot points as they develop.
Once one season is finished, move onto the next on the list, which is usually the one that came along next in the release order. It won’t be for everyone, but this way is best to enjoy each different series uninterrupted. That way, you’ll be treated with at least some sense of closure when you eventually reach the end with Dead City. (Until the next show comes out, that is.)
Best for: Following characters and their arcs consistently, but in keeping with the general chronology of the universe.
For more on The Walking Dead, check out our guides to the Ones Who Live cast, find out what happened in The Ones Who Live finale, and take a look at our feature on why The Ones Who Live proves The Walking Dead failed its star.
