The Walking Dead shambles on with spinoffs that continue to expand AMC’s post-apocalyptic franchise beyond the events of the original series. Having surpassed the timeline of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard’s original graphic novels, The Walking Dead now looks to introduce new elements to the zombie apocalypse in series like Dead City, Daryl Dixon, and The Ones Who Live.

The Walking Dead‘s new spinoffs not only explore exciting locations like France and New York City, but also expand the lore of the apocalypse beyond what was depicted in the original series. However, one of the most intriguing new elements of the franchise remains woefully undercooked three years after it was first introduced. Even though there has been plenty of time to explore more lore behind walker variants, The Walking Dead has failed to do so.

What Are Variant Walkers in The Walking Dead?

The Walking Dead Recently Introduced New Breeds of Walkers

Image via AMC

After eleven years, The Walking Dead‘s final season featured a shocking change to the apocalypse that threatens to overturn everything its characters know about surviving in this new, treacherous world: variant walkers. Originally, walkers are depicted as nothing more than shambling meat-eaters looking for their next meal. They only pose a real threat when they catch someone by surprise or when they are gathered in a large herd. Someone who knows how to survive can easily avoid these monsters without a problem.

However, the introduction of variant walkers changes everything, making the cannibalistic creatures far more dangerous than ever before. While the reason for walkers’ mutation is never given, it is implied that Wildfire, the virus that first turned humans into zombies, has mutated in the years since the apocalypse began. As a result, certain walkers have abilities far beyond their companions that make them much more dangerous than ever before.

The introduction of variant walkers adds a new element to the apocalypse, forcing The Walking Dead‘s survivors to contend with more dangerous enemies. These variants come in many different shapes and sizes, including Burners, which spew acidic blood, Cohorts, which have enhanced agility and speed, and the Walker King, which is an amalgamation of multiple walkers stuck together to create one superorganism.

In some cases, variant walkers are indistinguishable from the typical species and become much more dangerous the moment they reveal themselves. As Wildfire continues to mutate, new variant walkers continue to be discovered, making the apocalypse an even more dangerous place than ever before.

The Walking Dead Is Wasting Its Variant Walkers

There’s Nothing Special About The Walking Dead’s Variant Walkers

Variant walkers are an incredibly interesting idea that injects new energy into The Walking Dead after over a decade on television. Unfortunately, this concept is squandered in the Walking Dead spinoffs. So far, these series have offered little rhyme or reason to the variant walkers, using them as action set pieces more than plot points. Variant appearances are few and far between, with a new species popping up every time a series needs a bit of suspense.

Characters, while aware that there are new species of walkers, don’t seem to care all that much about these new threats. None seems particularly inclined to inquire as to what is making the walkers evolve, nor how this might change the world moving forward. In essence, variant walkers have become yet another boring obstacle for characters to get over, adding very little to the plot of the overall franchise.

The Walking Dead‘s use of variants makes no sense. The original series spent almost a season teasing the introduction of variants, only for the concept to be flushed away immediately. At no point do the variants play any meaningful role in any of the ongoing storylines in The Walking Dead, nor do the characters therein find any creative way to counter the threat, as they might have in the earlier seasons of the original series. The use of variant walkers is so sporadic that, if The Walking Dead had not introduced them in its final season, none of the spinoffs would look any different.

This is a major misstep for the franchise as the spinoffs essentially ignore what could have been the fresh concept that elevated them above the original series. The recent success of HBO’s The Last of Us proves audiences are interested in a more diverse depiction of the apocalypse, complete with multiple species of zombies that all have different abilities. While The Walking Dead attempts to replicate this success with its variant walkers, the franchise has hardly exerted the effort necessary to make audiences care.

How The Walking Dead Can Put Its New Walkers to Better Use

Variant Walkers Need to Be More Visible Threats

Image via AMC

To fix The Walking Dead‘s most frustrating storyline, the franchise needs to fully commit to the variant walkers. One or more of the ongoing spinoffs needs to put variant walkers front and center, fully initiating the new breed into the larger Walking Dead universe. Variants need to be more than a “boss battle” moving forward, but the center of attention. This could take the form of Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier investigating one of the medical laboratories that studied the Wildfire virus at the beginning of the apocalypse.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon takes place in France, where the most progress was made in studying the virus before the world fell. One of these labs could easily include answers about the variants’ origins and classifications. Just seeing Daryl and Carol investigating the variants would go a long way in solidifying the concept in fans’ minds. This would also keep the variant walkers fresh and interesting. It has become incredibly droll for audiences to watch as a new variant pops up for a few minutes, causes a bit of minor chaos, and then is quickly put down. If audiences don’t know anything about variants, it is difficult to care when a new one pops up.

The Walking Dead Franchise

Series
Years
IMDb Rating
Rotten Tomatoes Score
Streaming

The Walking Dead
2010-2022
8.1/10
79%
Netflix

Fear the Walking Dead
2015-2023
6.8/10
73%

The Walking Dead: World Beyond
2020-2021
4.5/10
46%
AMC+

Tales of the Walking Dead
2022
5.9/10
74%

The Walking Dead: Dead City
2023-Present
7.1/10
80%

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
2023-Present
7.6/10
79%
Netflix AMC+

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
2024
7.9/10
88%
AMC+

Another way to make variants more than just a forgettable plot point is to provide actual classifications for the new species. As it stands now, variants could be anything, do anything, and come from anywhere. While this adds a bit of extra danger for the franchise’s characters, it is also too abstract a concept to last long-term. If the variant walkers can do anything, then nothing they do will ever come as a surprise.

The Walking Dead needs to define the classifications of specific variant species, analyzing what these walkers can do and how they can be defeated. Then, when characters learn to overcome this threat, the franchise can introduce a new variant that makes matters more difficult. The Walking Dead‘s disorganized use of variant walkers can only last for so long before audiences demand answers. The Walking Dead has an interesting concept on its hands with variant walkers, but it must not continue to squander the idea. Used properly, variant walkers can inject new life into the franchise. If wasted, variants could spell the demise of The Walking Dead.