‘The Walking Dead: World Beyond’ Season 2: A Tougher Fight, More About CRM … and Rick?

This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s The Walking Dead Universe Special Collector’s Issue, which is available for international pre-order online at TheWalkingDeadMag.com and is available nationwide on newsstands now.

The undead hereare known as “empties,” but World Beyond’s second and final season is chock-full of answers. Mostly about the Civic Republic Military (CRM), the shadowy cabal that’s already gotten its hands on The Walking Dead’s Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) as well as several Fear survivors, in addition to terrorizing many on Beyond (set 10 years after the start of the apocalypse).

“You’re going to get a lot of insight about what you’ve heard passed around between Dead and Fear,” notes Aliyah Royale, who plays fierce teen Iris Bennett.

Last season, Iris and her edgy adoptive sister Hope (Alexa Mansour) left the safe haven of Nebraska’s Campus Colony for New York to locate their scientist dad, Leo (Joe Holt), who was sent there to research the dead for CRM. Their perilous trek was joined by Colony security officers Felix Carlucci (Nico Tortorella) and Jennifer “Huck” Mallick (Annet Mahendru), brainy teen Elton Ortiz (Nicholas Cantu) and violent loner Silas Plaskett (Hal Cumpston).

Over countless miles of dystopian terrain, it was revealed that Huck was sabotaging the journey. She framed Silas for trying to kill fellow survivor Percy (Ted Sutherland) and for actually killing Percy’s uncle Tony (Scott Adsit), and she sliced Felix’s ankle during a zombie attack—all part of a secret mission to deliver Hope solo to coldhearted CRM Lt. Col. Elizabeth Kublek (Julia Ormond), Huck’s mother.

Steve Swisher/AMC

“The first couple of episodes are kind of a mind trip,” says Mansour. “There are some insane scenes between [Kublek] and Hope.” And it was only a matter of time before the group saw CRM’s true intentions. “That’s the thing about large organizations [like the CRM]—they talk about doing things for the common good, but it’s a terrible thing they’re actually doing,” Royale says.

Still, “the asset” (aka Hope) winds up in CRM custody, along with Silas, who sacrificed himself to let Elton and Percy escape. The first season closed with a betrayed Iris and Felix encountering a band of survivors in the woods—led by Felix’s beau, Will (Jelani Alladin, promoted to series regular with Holt, Sutherland and Natalie Gold).

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“Now the fight is harder,” offers Tortorella of Season 2’s race to save Hope and expose the shady agency. “We realize pretty quickly that the CRM isn’t just one group of people—there are different sects underneath. But as the season progresses, we start to get pieces of the bigger puzzle.”

“And who knows,” Mansour says teasingly. “You might even see Rick!”

The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, October 3, 10/9c, AMC