Followers of The Walking Dead — the seminal and smash-hit zombie apocalypse drama that’s carried forward its popularity through 10 seasons and now approaches its final edition — have The Walking Dead: World Beyond, a spin-off the series, to look forward to. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video from October 2, World Beyond expands the Walking Dead universe but also promises a show that stands on its own strengths.

On a late-night cross-continental video call, The Telegraph got talking to showrunner Matt Negrete — who’s also done duties as a writer on The Walking Dead — and actor Julia Ormond (the star of notable Holly films like Legends of the Fall and Sabrina) who plays the central role of Elizabeth here, on what we can expect from World Beyond.

How much of The Walking Dead: World Beyond will be set in the universe of The Walking Dead?

Matt Negrete: This show is different in a few different ways. One of them is the tone, it’s a hopeful show in general, and because we are dealing with younger characters, it has a younger point of view. When Scott Gimple and I were developing the show, we wanted the audience to get to know these characters. We are a limited series and we are not banking on having 11 years like The Walking Dead to establish these characters. One of the devices we used for this was flashbacks. Almost every episode will have a flashback that we will use to inform the story and the characters.

Julia Ormond: Each episode has its standalone strengths, which you can dive in, irrespective of whether you have watched The Walking Dead or not. But they do stand in the same universe.

Matt: One of the ideas behind creating World Beyond was expanding the Walking Dead universe. There will be things here that we have seen in both The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead (a 2015 spin-off series). We did see Rick (Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln) being taken away by this military organisation in Season 9 of the main show and we don’t know where he is in the present day, 10 years after the apocalypse. In World Beyond, we are going to know more about this organisation as well as Elizabeth, played by Julia, who is a part of this organisation.

Matt, you’ve said that World Beyond has been created to expand the universe of The Walking Dead. Will it also function as a nostalgic hook for fans, with The Walking Dead approaching its final season?

Matt: That’s a great question. I do think that there is a sense of nostalgia to it. For me, World Beyond is pretty much a coming-of-age story. Something that’s relevant to kids that age, but also to those who have once been that age. It’s about looking back at those formative years of your life where you are learning what the world is and what it means to you, and also trying to figure out who you are at that age because everything changes so quickly. One ends up growing fast and just having the apocalypse, which forces you to grow up anyway, seemed like a fascinating backdrop to explore and tell a coming-of-age story.

Even when you look at the pilot episode of The Walking Dead, you see Rick waking up from coma and slowly piece together what the world is. And with our characters, it’s similar in the sense that they are also trying to find out what the world is, but the thing is that they already know the rules. They’ve grown up in the apocalypse and behind walls and they’ve been taught safety classes and they know how to kill a ‘walker’. It’s nostalgic I think in a way, but also with a twist, which will feel fresh to fans of the show.

One of the things I noticed while watching the first two episodes was a parallel with The Wizard of Oz, in the sense that you have four people giving up their safety in the quest of a man who might have some answers for them, and Julia that does make you the evil witch who is chasing them! Are there any references from popular culture that have seeped into World Beyond?

Julia: That is a great question and observation. The character that I play is in a kind of leadership role in the military. I didn’t put together The Wizard of Oz analogy, but I love it! (Laughs) I also think that the end of the yellow brick road (in The Wizard of Oz) and its discovery of it is really pertinent to what we see happening in The Walking Dead. What I like in the new series is that once these kids leave the comfort of their safety, they end up being the moral compass of the show against this entity that they don’t really know about.

For my character, one of the references I reached out to was Robert Duvall (who played Bill Kilgore) in Apocalypse Now. I always liked the depiction of military leadership functioning in dissociation from the chaos around, that we got to see in that film. I also went back to Captain Phillips (starring Tom Hanks) because I felt that was the most amazing depiction of the dissociation of military. And then, the series itself and the earlier spin-off were also references.

Matt: This series was always devised to be a quest-based goal. These characters set out in search of a goal and they each have issues they are grappling with. Silas (played by Hal Cumpston) is trying to escape the demons of his past, but ultimately, he has to confront them. Hope (Alexa Mansour) has her own demons as well. It’s one singular journey they are on, but each of them has their personal, emotional journeys. In that sense, The Wizard of Oz analogy is spot-on... it’s a great question.

Julia, what made you want to join The Walking Dead universe?

Julia: Honestly, when The Walking Dead first came out, I didn’t latch onto it. But when Matt approached me with this, I was like, ‘Okay, millions of people can’t be wrong in loving the show... maybe I should have a look at it again’. I kind of approached it like dating... that I would give it three shots before I made any judgment. And I got totally hooked! (Laughs) It’s super fun to be offered a role in something that you like.

Also, I love the way Matt and Scott write for women. A lot of the scripts that come to me have their female characters as less brave and less nuanced. But Matt and Scott allow their women to be evolved, violent, fearless and passionate. I don’t think I would have trusted just any group of writers to create a female military role and not have it be cliched. On television, unlike in a film, you don’t get to see where every character is going and in that case, you have to trust the creators and the writers, that they are going to give the actors good set-ups and good writing.

Matt, how do you explain the enduring popularity of The Walking Dead franchise?

Matt: I think the magic lies in the characters. What Robert Kirkman did with the comics was that he created this event that changed the world and it gave everybody from every walk of life something to grapple with... the apocalypse happened to all of us in this universe. The magic lay in the idea of representing people form different economic backgrounds and different sexual orientations. Also, in our writing, we focused on representing the truth about something that affects the entire world. Everyone has a character that they see themselves in and ultimately root for.

I was a writer on The Walking Dead for six years and I was very used to the rhythms of that show. With World Beyond, I had to step outside of myself and ensure it had to feel different. There were always going to be parallels, but this show justifies itself by being different and feeling different. I would credit Scott Gimple for coming up every time and saying, ‘This feels too much like The Walking Dead... let’s put it in a blender and mix it up differently’.

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