The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live - Do You Need To Watch Other TWD Spin-Offs First?

The "Walking Dead" universe is a sprawling, fast-moving entity that's managed to bud off a handful of spin-offs. Some of those series take us to other places affected by the walker plague, while others — such as "The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live" — take characters from the main show's beloved ensemble cast and build up new adventures for them to tackle. The good news for "Walking Dead" fans is that they don't need to watch any of the show's other spin-offs before this one, with "The Ones Who Live" picking up right where Rick Grimes' (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne's (Danai Gurira) stories leave off during the series finale of "The Walking Dead."

Aside from that small footnote, viewers can move directly from when Michonne leaves "The Walking Dead" — in Season 10, Episode 13, "What We Become" — into this series, with "The Ones Who Live" giving pretty thorough background information as necessary. That's not to say that the series is entirely devoid of references to other "Walking Dead" spin-offs, though. For instance, trailers reveal that "The Ones Who Live" will see the return of the treacherous Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), who is not only a veteran of "The Walking Dead" Seasons 7–9 but also the primary antagonist of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" Season 2, in which she is a warrant officer of the Civic Republic Military.

After Rick seemingly sacrifices himself by blowing up a bridge in a last-ditch effort to prevent a horde of walkers from reaching his community and its allies in "The Walking Dead" Season 9, Episode 5, "What Comes After," his family and friends presume him to be dead. Little do they know, he survives and is scooped up by a helicopter thanks to Jadis. In the series finale, he is seen trying to escape from the CRM.

Michonne, meanwhile, gives birth to RJ (Antony Azor) and raises him and Judith (Cailey Fleming). Finding new hope that Rick is alive, she eventually sets out to find him and bring him home. At the end of "What We Become," she decides to help a couple who belong to a community of survivors heading northward, and in the series finale, she is seen dressed for battle and riding into a large herd of walkers.

When the new series opens, Rick is trapped under the thumb of the CRM and Michonne is seemingly making her way toward wherever he is being held prisoner. Fans will have to tune in to "The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live" to find out what their lives have been like since their respective departures from "The Walking Dead" and whether or not they will ever find each other.