'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' Is a Coming-of-Age Zombie Show

We know what you're thinking. Why did The Walking Dead create yet another spinoff before ending the flagship series? Yes, The Walking Dead: World Beyond marks the second official spinoff to air on AMC following survivors amid the zombie outbreak in a complicated and terrifying post-apocalyptic world.

But some fans are wondering, what is The Walking Dead: World Beyond even about? It's clear that it has to do with zombies. Or, excuse us, walkers. But it also features a brand new cast and most of the characters are much younger than the heroes of The Walking Dead. Except for Judith, of course, who remains tougher than some of the adults on The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond lines up with the same timeline depicted in The Walking Dead. It takes place 10 years after the outbreak and has a cast made up of mostly teenagers who have grown up in this world more than they did in the world as it was before the apocalypse.

According to a press release from the time the series was initially announced, The Walking Dead: World Beyond follows "the first generation to come of age in the apocalypse as we know it."

In a way, it's like The Walking Dead meets Stranger Things meets Dawson's Creek. OK, that last one might be a stretch. But unlike the other spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead, this one features a group of ragtag teenagers who are tasked with growing up fast while surviving together and trying to build lives for themselves.

During Michonne's final episode of The Walking Dead, she encountered a few of the kids who would go on to appear in The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Because of this, fans have since expected that she would pop up on the spinoff at some point. There is a lot of talk of her in Season 11 of The Walking Dead, after all.

So far, she hasn't been in the new show and there don't appear to be plans for her to join the young cast. The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott M. Gimple told The Hollywood Reporter that there are plans to bring Michonne back, though it probably won't be in the spinoff.

"I have some ambitions," he said. "I love her and Rick together, but I love seeing her as the pure lead on her own, too. It just so happens that there's a lot of story terrain to cover." He added that, for the time being, The Walking Dead movie takes precedence.

You can't have a Walking Dead spinoff without theories surrounding Rick's return. And after the Season 2 trailer for The Walking Dead: World Beyond featured Jadis, the fandom was abuzz with hope.

Jadis is the same woman who took Rick away on a helicopter following the bridge explosion that didn't actually kill him. Because she's teased as a new cast member in World Beyond, fans hope Rick will make an appearance, too.

Scott M. Gimple, who serves as executive producer of the spinoff, said in a statement obtained by Entertainment Weekly that "we'll get hints of what happened with that fateful helicopter ride."

However, there's no official word on Rick's return to the franchise, short of in the promised movie.

Watch the Walking Dead: World Beyond on Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on AMC.