The limited series sequel is now streaming on Netflix.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is a unique show within the Walking Dead franchise. It’s the only Walking Dead limited series to date, as it brings the epic love story of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) to a conclusion over the course of six emotional and action-packed episodes.
When post-apocalyptic horror drama The Walking Dead ended after 11 seasons in 2022, it left a few loose ends, the most important ones being what happened to Rick, who’s taken away from his home and family under mysterious circumstances in Season 9, and Michonne, who sets out to find him in Season 10. The Ones Who Live is all about the survivors’ long-awaited reunion. It’s not a spoiler to reveal that they find each other again, because the real story is about how they reconnect as lovers after being separated for so long, and how they fight to make their way home.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live was created by Scott M. Gimple (chief content officer of The Walking Dead universe), Lincoln, and Gurira. It premiered on AMC in 2024 and is now streaming on Netflix in the US. Here’s what you need to know before you watch.
What’s the backstory for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live?
The story of The Ones Who Live started back in Season 9, Episode 4 of The Walking Dead, “What Comes After.” In that episode, Rick, the hardened but heroic leader of the Alexandria community, has to single-handedly keep a large herd of walkers from reaching the community while bleeding out from an abdominal wound he sustains after falling off a horse onto steel rebar. He stops the walkers by blowing up a bridge, sending the herd and himself into the river below. He washes up barely alive on the riverbank, where Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), a member of the community harboring a clandestine agreement with a mysterious paramilitary organization known as the Civic Republic Military (CRM), spots him. A CRM helicopter is about to spirit her away at that very moment, and she takes Rick with her, bartering his freedom to secure a better place in the CRM for herself. They fly off toward parts unknown, leaving Rick’s friends and family to assume he died in the explosion.
Rick’s apparent death means his partner, Michonne, a formidable fighter and smart strategic thinker, has to become the new leader of Alexandria and raise their daughter Judith (Cailey Fleming) and son R.J. (Antony Azor) without him. She never fully believes he’s dead, though. Six years after he goes missing, she confirms her suspicions in the Season 10 episode “What We Become,” when she finds his boots and a drawing of herself and Judith on an abandoned boat recently washed ashore near Alexandria. The ship’s logs give Michonne a clue about where Rick might be, and she sets out to find him.
Before The Ones Who Live, the last we see of either Rick or Michonne is in a brief flash-forward in the series finale of The Walking Dead, “Rest in Peace.” In the glimpse, Michonne is still in the wilderness searching for her man, while Rick is on a beach trying to send her a message in a bottle. He’s wearing a CRM jacket — meanwhile, a CRM helicopter pilot orders him to surrender and stop trying to escape.
What is the Civic Republic Military, and what do they want?
Rick’s abduction reveals the existence of the CRM, but meaningful information about them, like their name, who they are, and what they want, gets parceled out over time in spin-offs Fear the Walking Dead and especially The Walking Dead: World Beyond. The CRM is the military wing of the Civic Republic, a large, technologically advanced survivor community based in what used to be Philadelphia. It’s part of an alliance with other colonies in Omaha, Nebraska, and Portland, Oregon, but those colonies don’t know how powerful and how untrustworthy the CRM actually is. The Civic Republic and its military have resources far beyond any other community on The Walking Dead, and its members consider the organization to be humanity’s best hope for building a future. But the CRM operates independently of the government of the Civic Republic, often in secret, and it commits horrific, large-scale acts of exploitation and violence under the belief that the utopian ends it strives for will justify its ruthless means. By the time of The Ones Who Live, Jadis has become a warrant officer in the CRM.
What happens in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live?
The sequel series starts by filling viewers in on what’s been happening to Rick and Michonne since they left The Walking Dead.
Rick was a Civic Republic “consignee” for several years, surviving by working in servitude to achieve citizenship but repeatedly attempting to break free and go home. Eventually, he’s granted citizenship and becomes a CRM soldier. Convinced that there’s no escape from an organization so powerful, he gives up his dream of returning to his family and commits to improving the culture of the CRM from the inside.
Michonne, meanwhile, has been searching for Rick for a long time. While traveling with a small group, she’s attacked by the CRM, and most of her friends are killed.
We won’t spoil how Rick and Michonne reunite, but things are not immediately easy for them when they do. Even though they still love each other, they’ve both changed during their years apart, and their goals aren’t necessarily the same anymore. And even if they can align them, will it be enough for them to escape Jadis and the CRM?
Who’s in the cast of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live?
Andrew Lincoln (Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities) as Rick Grimes, the former Georgia sheriff, former leader of the Alexandria colony, and current CRM soldier who will do anything for his family
Danai Gurira (Black Panther) as Michonne, a katana-wielding zombie apocalypse survivor on a quest to find the man she loves and bring him home
Pollyanna McIntosh (Vikings: Valhalla) as Jadis Stokes, an enigmatic CRM officer who will be whoever she needs to be in order to survive
Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer) as Pearl Thorne, Rick’s friend and fellow CRM soldier
Craig Tate (Shameless) as Okafur, a CRM officer who recruits Rick and Thorne to his cause of reforming the CRM
Matthew Jeffers (New Amsterdam) as Nat, a traveling companion of Michonne’s
How does The Ones Who Live connect to the larger Walking Dead universe?
The limited series is a direct sequel to The Walking Dead, and takes place during and after the events of the flagship show. Its two protagonists and primary antagonist are all from The Walking Dead, and it features other Walking Dead characters whose appearances we won’t spoil. The CRM pops up across the Walking Dead universe in The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, but hasn’t shown up in the other sequel series, Daryl Dixon and Dead City.
What other Walking Dead shows are available on Netflix?
In addition to The Ones Who Live, several other Walking Dead series are streaming on Netflix in the US. All 11 seasons of the mothership series are available, as are all eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead, the first spin-off. You can also watch the first season of sequel series The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which follows the title character (played by Norman Reedus) as he experiences the zombie apocalypse in France.
