Ivan Radford | On 19, May 2024

The Walking Dead may have finished its 11th and final season – premiering on Disney+’s adult-friendly Star section in 2021. But the franchise is still going strong, with spin-offs aplenty that range from Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, both now completed, to The Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.

All that begs the question: what on earth is The Walking Dead all about? And what do you need to know if you’re only just tuning in? Since the first season of the post-apocalyptic zombie drama, an intrepid group of survivors have confronted past demons and combatted new threats, with friendships and relationships suffering from the mounting collateral damage caused by the undead plague. And we’re here to help to keep track, with a beginner’s guide to what’s going on – plus where you can stream it all.

 

Where can I watch The Walking Dead online in the UK?

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened in each season and where it’s available to stream:

Season 1

Season 1 told the story of the weeks and months that follow after a zombie apocalypse. County Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) travelled with wife Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies) and son Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) and a small group of survivors, constantly in search of a safe and secure home. But the constant pressure of fighting off death on a daily basis took a heavy toll, sending many to the lowest depths of human cruelty. Faced with brutal, life altering decisions at every turn, the survivors were forced to adapt to their newfound reality. As Rick struggled to keep his family alive, he discovered that the overwhelming fear of the survivors was far more dangerous than the mindless walkers roaming the earth.

Read our reviews of Season 1

Season 2

Rick and his small group of survivors found that holding onto their humanity was more difficult than they ever imagined, even as they found shelter at the Greene Family Farm, looked off by the widowed Hershel (Scott Wilson). While Rick’s power was questioned and new enemies arose, the survivors realised that they themselves were the walking dead to which the title refers.

Season 3

In Season 3, Rick and his fellow survivors continued to seek refuge in their desolate and post-apocalyptic world, mainly by holing up in a prison. But they soon discovered that there are greater forces to fear than just the walking dead: enter new characters the Governor (David Morrissey) and fan-favourite Michonne (Danai Gurira), who got through this world by walking around with a couple of zombie “pets” chained up. The group severed upon the arrival of new survivors and Rick struggled to control his group’s security and cope with a devastating loss. The Governor, leading the closed-off civilisation of Woodbury, presented himself as the ultimate threat to everyone’s survival. As everyone in the prison and Woodbury’s lives were threatened by their war, Rick continued to push boundaries to protect fellow survivors, but the success came at numerous costs.

Read our review of Season 3

Season 4

In this uncertain, post-apocalyptic world, Rick and his band of survivors continued their ongoing struggle against the threat of walkers as well as the dangers that lurk among the living. Season 4 found Rick and the group fostering a thriving community in the safe haven of the prison. Sadly, in this brutal world, happiness was short lived; walkers and outside threats were no match for danger brewing inside the fences. Just when salvation seemed to be in sight, they fell into more danger than ever before and had to wonder whether survival was enough to live. In Season 4, the group’s home and new way of life was thoroughly tested with every decision they made. The season ended with Rick and the group outgunned, outnumbered, and trapped.

Read our review of Season 4

Season 5

Season 5 introduced us to the supposed sanctuary of Terminus. What followed was a story that weaves the true motives of the people of Terminus with the hopeful prospect of a cure in Washington, DC, the fate of the group’s lost comrades, as well as new locales, new conflicts and new obstacles in keeping the group together and staying alive. Faced with the possibility of sanctuary, the survivors came to realise that threats lurked even in the utopia they had dreamed of for so long. Stories broke apart and intersected. The characters found love and hate. Peace and conflict. Contentment and terror. And, in the quest to find a permanent, safe place to call home, one question haunted them: after all this, who had they become?

Read our reviews of Season 5

Season 6

To make it as far as they have – to have persevered through all of their heartbreaking challenges – our survivors have evolved into incredibly powerful people, but power is not always for good. They attempted to find a way to assimilate into the safe zone of Alexandria, but many of Rick’s people needed to take a step back from the violence and pragmatism they’ve needed to embrace. These reversals didn’t happen easily, or without conflict. However, Rick’s group began fighting for something more than survival: they fought for their home, and defended it at any cost, against any threat, even if that threat came from within. While there’s the threat of a massive herd of walkers in a nearby quarry, there’s also the discover of a new community – The Hilltop – and new hostile survivors called the Saviours.

Read our reviews of Season 6

Season 7

Up until this point, our characters have lived through conflicts. Disease, hunger, scores of the undead, tragedy, betrayal, and unthinkable loss. They’ve found strength power. At the start of Season 7, that power is taken away. They thought they knew the world. They were wrong. The group was fractured, broken, bereaved and desperate to pick up the pieces while living under the thumb of oppression, as Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) successfully brought the survivors under his control, brutally convincing them to live under his rules with a deadly and horrific example of what happens if they don’t. Other characters were unaware of what happened, but have become separated from the group either by incident or choice – they learnt that they can’t escape this new turn of their world either. As the season progressed, Rick’s group focused on preparing for war and gathering the supplies and numbers to take Negan and the Saviours down once and for all. But victory required more than Alexandria. Rick and his group found themselves going to remarkable lengths to take back power, while relationships and trusts were betrayed and broken at every turn – no matter how much they planned, they could never be prepared for the war with Negan and his army.

Read our reviews of Season 7

Season 8

In Season 7, Rick and his group were confronted with their deadliest challenge yet through the introduction of Negan and the Saviours, who broke our group. Feeling powerless under Negan’s rules and demands, Rick advocated the group play along. But seeing that Negan couldn’t be reasoned with, Rick began rallying together other communities affected by the Saviours. And with the support of the Hilltop and Kingdom, they finally had enough firepower to contest them. In Season 8, Rick brought all out war to Negan and his forces. The Saviours were larger, better equipped and ruthless – but Rick and the unified communities were fighting for the promise of a brighter future. The battle lines were drawn as they launched into a kinetic, action-packed offensive. As with any battle, there were losses. Casualties. But with Rick leading the Alexandrian forces, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) leading the Hilltop, and King Ezekiel (Khary PaytonOayton) Kharyleading the Kingdom – was Negan and the Saviours’ grip on this world finally be coming to an end?

Read our reviews of Season 8

Season 9

Season 8 pitted Rick and his group of survivors against the Saviours and Negan. With Negan’s life in his hands, Rick had a character-defining choice in front of him. By making the unilateral decision to spare Negan, Rick upheld the values his late son, Carl, championed in order to build for the future, but created conflict within his group. In Season 9, we saw our survivors a year and a half after the end of the war, rebuilding civilization under Rick’s steadfast leadership. It was a time of relative peace among the communities as they worked together, looking to the past to forge the future, but the world they knew was rapidly changing as man-made structures continued to degrade, and nature took over, changing the landscape and creating new challenges for our survivors. As time passes, the communities confronted unexpected obstacles, danger and, of course, walkers, but nothing prepared them for the formidable force they were about to encounter, which threatened the very idea of civilization that our survivors worked so hard to build: the Whisperers, led by Alpha (Samantha Morton).

Read our reviews of Season 9

Season 10

The Walking Dead started with one man trying to find his family. That family grew and gradually communities took shape. They fought and survived, thrived and gave birth to a new generation. Season 10 began in Spring, a few months after the end of Season 9, when our group of survivors dared to cross into Whisperer territory during the harsh winter. The collected communities were still dealing with the after effects of Alpha’s horrific display of power, reluctantly respecting the new borderlines being imposed on them, all while organising themselves into a militia-style fighting force, preparing for a battle that may be unavoidable. But the Whisperers were a threat unlike any other. Backed by a massive horde of the dead it was a fight they could win. That fear infected their communities and gave rise to paranoia, propaganda, secret agendas, and infighting that tested them as individuals and as a society.

Read our reviews of Season 10

Season 11

Season 11 picks up from the events of Season 10, as Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), Aaron (Ross Marquand), Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt), Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) and Princess Sanchez (Paola Lazaro) continue to navigate their way through the zombie apocalypse.

Alexandria is severely compromised, left a former shell of the home it once was from the carnage and devastation left behind by the Whisperers. Now all who live in Alexandria struggle to refortify it and feed its increasing number of residents, which include the survivorsfrom the fall of the Kingdom and the burning of Hilltop; along with Maggie and her new group, the Wardens. Alexandria has more people than it can manage to feed and protect. Their situation is dire as tensions heat up over past events and self-preservation rises to the surface within the ravaged walls.

They must secure more food while they attempt to restore Alexandria before it collapses like countless other communities they have come across throughout the years. But where and how? Meanwhile, unbeknownst to those at Alexandria, Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko, and Princess are still being held captive by mysterious soldiers who are members of a larger and unforthcoming group.

Read our reviews of Season 11

 

Fear The Walking Dead

The first companion series to The Walking Dead is initially set before the events of the hit zombie series, and follows a family in Los Angeles (an ensemble led by Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis), just as the virus outbreak occurs and panic spreads. As it continues over its eight seasons, it time-jumps to run concurrently to the lead show, with fan-favourite Morgan (Lennie James) crossing over in the show. Other cast members include Colman Domingo, Garret Dillahunt and Frank Dillane.

Read our review of Seasons 1 to 4

 

The Walking Dead: 2024 spin-offs

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?

Available to watch on Sky Max and NOW from 31st May 2024.

The Walking Dead: Dead City

Years have passed since we last saw Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan, (Jeffery Dean Morgan) and the old enemies must now form a tenuous alliance in order to carry out a dangerous mission. Maggie and Negan travel into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland, where they discover that the crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror. But as the pair moves deeper into the gritty depths of the walker-infested city, it becomes apparent that the traumas of their tumultuous past may prove just as great a threat as the dangers of the present.

Available to watch on Sky Max and NOW in 2024 (date TBC), followed by Season 2 in 2025.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

After Daryl Dixon’s departure from The Commonwealth, a capsized Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. His arrival in France raises the ire of leaders within a splintered, but growing autocratic movement centered in Paris, and endangers a young boy at the heart of a benevolent religious movement called the Union of Hope. Daryl agrees to shepherd the child and his caretakers on their pilgrimage to The Nest, a sanctuary which promises safety, in return for the Union’s help securing him passage back to America. The series tracks Daryl’s journey, fighting his way through the unique Walker strains and provincial violence of France – conflicts rooted in both pre-walker personal histories and the deep history of France. Along the way, Daryl will find his steadfast desire to return home complicated by the new connections he forms and the renewed sense of hope these relationships give him.

Available to watch on Sky Max and NOW from August 2024.

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