The Walking Dead Is Officially Starting a Multiverse, With New Series Bringing Back Dead Characters After 12 Years

While spinoffs are the new bread and butter of the franchise, The Walking Dead and the word “multiverse” aren’t typically two ideas that fans of the TV show put together as a possibility for what could come next for the franchise. But it seems that is exactly the direction that the long-running series is trying to head in, even going so far as to bring back a character that had one of the most upsetting deaths in the entire run. And with everything else that we know so far about the third season of The Walking Dead: Dead City, this plan is sure to be a bit of a shocker.

At the Walking Dead: Dead City Comic-Con panel, which was moderated by EW’s Dalton Ross, Lauren Cohan, who plays Maggie Rhee, announced that Emily Kinney, who played her younger sister, Beth, in the original series, will be returning to the spinoff for a guest-starring role in an alternate reality-themed episode of Dead City. And that’s huge news for fans who were left devastated by Beth’s sudden death—not least of all, Kinney herself, who only found out that Beth was being killed off a few weeks before the scene actually happened.

What Can Fans Expect From This Multiverse Episode?

At the very least, we know that it’ll be a reunion of sorts between Maggie and Beth. Speaking in a behind-the-scenes moment of the filming of the episode, Cohan said, “We’re really glad that Emily wanted to come back and do this.” Kinney responded in kind, adding, “I had no idea I’d get a chance to play Beth again. I’m so happy to be here.” And when asked earlier in the year about the tone of the season, Cohan told us here at ComicBook, “We have a new vibe this year,” elaborating that there would be a “completely new tone and new relationships.”

Dead City has been insanity in the best way from the very beginning, shoving together two incredibly explosive characters in Maggie (Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)—the latter of whom is responsible for the incredibly gruesome murder of the former’s husband. The first two seasons centered around the search for Maggie’s kidnapped son, Hershel (Logan Kim), and the psychological toll of these two particular people being forced to rely on one another for survival. And with the reintroduction of Beth, even if just in a “what-if” episode, Season 3 is already shaping up to be wildly emotional.

Are you looking forward to seeing Beth again, even if it’s just for one episode? Is it a good idea for The Walking Dead to step into potentially complicated multiverse territory? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the ComicBook forum to see what other Walking Dead fans are saying.