Is Tales of the Walking Dead Canon? (& How It Connects)

YsmaelByYsmael Delicana Published on
tales

Ever since The Walking Dead was released in 2010, the entire franchise has become so popular and big that it was only a matter of time until AMC was going to cash in on how huge this series has become. That said, it has created an entire fictional universe on its own and has paved the way for more series that are based on the main show. The latest series in The Walking Dead franchise is Tales of the Walking Dead, which is an anthology series. But is Tales of the Walking Dead canon?

Tales of the Walking Dead is canon because it takes place in the same universe as The Walking Dead. However, it is possible that it is canon only to The Walking Dead series and not to the comics books, which are the source materials used for the universe. In fact, one of the episodes features Alpha.

It can be quite rare to see an anthology series that actually takes place in the canon universe of its parent series, considering that most anthologies are not canon. That is where Tales of the Walking Dead enters as a canon anthology series that respects its roots and pays homage to The Walking Dead. That said, let’s take a good look at what we know about Tales of the Walking Dead and its connection with The Walking Dead.

Is Tales Of The Walking Dead Canon?

One of the biggest fictional franchises that we have ever seen on television is The Walking Dead because it gave new life to the zombie apocalypse genre. The series has been around since 2010, and its popularity has only allowed it to grow into its own universe. It is needless to say that AMC made sure to cash in on all of its chips on The Walking Dead when it gave the green light for several more projects that are based in the same universe.

As such, there are now plenty of different spin-offs that all stem from The Walking Dead. The universe of The Walking Dead is only getting bigger and bigger, and the newest entry in this large universe is Tales Of The Walking Dead.

Unlike the other spin-offs, Tales Of The Walking Dead is an anthology series. That basically means that every episode in the series is a different story that follows a different group of characters that all have to find a way to survive during the zombie apocalypse. But what does that mean for the storyline of Tales Of The Walking Dead? Is Tales Of The Walking Dead canon?

The thing about anthologies is that every episode has a different story to tell, and that makes it difficult to determine whether or not they are truly canon. On top of that, most anthologies have different writers and producers for each episode, and that means that there is almost no continuity in the entire anthology series, given that the writers and director are allowed to be independent. This was the same case for Star Wars: Visions and The Boys Presents: Diabolical, which are both anthology series that are not canon to their own respective universes (except for the last episode of Diabolical).

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With that, there might be some fans that would think that Tales of the Walking Dead isn’t canon to the entire The Walking Dead universe because of the fact that it is an anthology series that is allowed to take a different spin on the storyline and characters in each episode. And because it is an anthology, there is no continuity regarding the episodes and their relationships with each other.

However, Tales of the Walking Dead takes place in the same universe as the entire The Walking Dead franchise. That means that it is indeed canon to the entire The Walking Dead series due to the fact that it is in the same universe that has been overrun by zombies or walkers.

The entire world of The Walking Dead is huge because of the fact that the entire human population has been devastated by the apocalyptic event. That means that basically, the entire world has gone to hell. This also means that The Walking Dead has a lot of untapped potential in different places around the world, considering that the United States alone is already too big for the entire parent series to cover. As such, spin-offs like Tales of the Walking Dead can tap that untapped potential by telling stories that take place in other areas and are about other characters in the larger world of The Walking Dead.

How Does Tales Of The Walking Dead Connect With The Walking Dead?

While Tales of the Walking Dead takes place in the same universe as The Walking Dead, there is something bigger that allows it to connect with the greater The Walking Dead narrative. And that’s because there are going to be episodes in this anthology series that would connect it with The Walking Dead.

The third episode of Tales of the Walking Dead will revolve around a character named Dee. For those who didn’t know, Dee is the real name of Alpha, who we first saw in season 9 of The Walking Dead. And executive producer Channing Powell already teased us of Alpha appearing in Tales of the Walking Dead.

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“There’s Alpha, so obviously you get the return of that character,” Powell said. “Then we’ve peppered in a little bit of something that true fans might recognize there might not, but it’s not, we weren’t too overt about it.”

For those who forgot, Alpha is the leader of a group of survivors called the Whisperers, which wear the skin of walkers so that they can blend in with them and stay alive without getting eaten. And it seems like the third episode of Tales Of The Walking Dead will allow us to get to know more about Alpha and what happened in her past life before she became the leader of the Whisperers.

Of course, Powell also said that there is something that will surprise true fans of The Walking Dead. It might be possible that they slipped in an Easter egg in one of the episodes in Tales of the Walking Dead so that fans of the original series would see the connection between the anthology and the parent storyline. As such, the connections are there, and all we have to do is to keep our eyes open to catch some of the things that would connect the individual episodes of Tales of the Walking Dead with The Walking Dead and even the other spin-offs.

Ysmael

Ysmael “Eng” Delicana is a writer based in Davao City, Philippines. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics at Ateneo de Davao University before continuing to teach part-time at the same university. While teaching was a fun gig, being a geek and a writer seemed to be his calling. His expertise includes fantasy shows and movies, comic books, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and popular RPG video games. Ysmael also excels at learning new things and getting to know new topics that are interesting yet foreign to him, and that’s why he can also be called a jack of all trades. He also works as a part-time writer for books about sports. As an avid fan of fantasy TV shows, video games, and books, Ysmael is fond of watching, playing, and reading things related to fantasy, magic, and mystical creatures. However, he is also a huge fan of anime, as he spends a portion of his time watching shonen anime. As long as something is interesting and worth his time, Ysmael tends to devote his effort to it, as he has been great at geeking out about a certain topic. Ysmael’s writing style tends to be quite conversational in the sense that he likes speaking to the readers instead of making them feel like they are reading something tedious. He picked up this during his teaching years because he needed to find ways to simplify topics that tend to be foreign and complex to students. Ysmael also writes for Comic Basics.