World Beyond’s Credits Scene Should’ve Been Saved For TWD Season 11 Finale

The Walking Dead: World Beyond’s post-credits scene should’ve been saved for the season 11 finale of The Walking Dead. The scene depicts the international effects of the zombie outbreak by visiting France for the first time in franchise history. While this is an exciting development, it would have worked better had World Beyond’s post-credits revelations been saved for the highly anticipated finale of the flagship series.

World Beyond’s post-credits scene features a female scientist collecting data off flash drives, which contain more details about the virus, and presumably any information collected about a possible cure. While she’s doing so, a man approaches and accuses her and her colleagues of not only causing, but worsening the outbreaks through their experiments. She is promptly shot dead, before reanimating as a faster, far stronger zombie.

This revelation from World Beyond’s post-credits scene opens up the franchise in some truly huge ways while shedding light on the origin of The Walking Dead’s outbreak, but it’s also one that would’ve had a far bigger impact if it was featured after TWD’s upcoming series finale. The scene had little to do with World Beyond’s story or the CRM, and instead sets up the future of the broader franchise. In addition, the scene also features a surprise cameo appearance from Dr. Edwin Jenner (Noah Emmerich), a well-known, albeit short-lived character from The Walking Dead season 1.

While only appearing in two episodes of The Walking Dead season 1—with his second appearance ending in the character’s memorable death—Dr. Jenner leaves a lasting impact on the entire franchise. It is Jenner who tries (and tragically fails) to develop a cure for the virus long after other labs and nations had gone dark, and his character introduced a great deal about how the infection develops and spreads early on in the series. Most importantly, in the Walking Dead season 1 finale, Jenner is the one who reveals to Rick that everyone already carries the virus—even if they haven’t been bit.

To that end, it is quite fitting that it’s Jenner who delivers more important information on the outbreak in World Beyond’s post-credits scene, particularly with potential new variants being introduced. But given his prominence in the original series, the scene is far better suited for the season 11 finale The Walking Dead. Not just because it sets up the future of the franchise established by the original series, but because Jenner’s appearance would also bring the series full circle with a satisfying bookend.

Ultimately, there is a possibility that the reason the post-credits scene is included in The Walking Dead: World Beyond’s ending is because the events will factor into the large franchise in the very near future. If that ends up being the case, then it makes sense why the showrunners decided to include it prior to The Walking Dead’s final episodes. For now, though, as exciting as the scene is for the future of the franchise, the Walking Dead: World Beyond’s post-credits scene would have made a lot more sense as an ending to the original show.