The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020–21) was the first series of the Dead franchise to heavily focus on the Civic Republic Military, the highly organized group that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) finds himself trapped in at the start of The Ones Who Live. Here’s what Beyond taught us about the powerful force.
They’re ruthless
The Civic Republic once maintained an alliance of three colonies: Portland, Oregon; Omaha and the Civic Republic’s secret base in Philadelphia. When the Civic Republic Military decided the colonies couldn’t self-sustain and would eventually drain the republic’s resources, it moved to wipe them out. The military extracted Omaha residents they believed could be useful to their overall mission and then used deadly gas to kill the remaining thousands in the colony. They would have done the same to Portland, but the good guys on Beyond thwarted that plan.
(Credit: AMC)
The CRM sees itself as “the last light of the world”
Focused on wiping out the dead and ensuring humanity’s survival, the CRM team uses its extensive resources to study walkers. At a research facility in Ithaca, New York, Dr. Lyla Belshaw (Natalie Gold) employed walkers and the living as test subjects to study the virus. Her goals? To prevent humans from turning and wipe out already existing hordes of the dead.
They have tech and weapons
The Civic Republic maintains many of life’s conveniences from before the apocalypse. Cities and facilities possess electricity, running water, and an abundance of food. And the military is stocked with guns, vehicles, helicopters, and chlorine gas. They have the highest quality of postapocalyptic life we’ve seen in the Walking Dead Universe by far.
They’re everywhere
In Beyond, we saw that the CRM’s reach extends to much of America, from New York to Oregon. We know they were in Virginia — and their helicopters even traveled as far as Texas in Season 5 of spinoff Fear the Walking Dead.
Jadis is working for them
On Beyond, it was revealed that Rick’s former enemy Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) now works as a CRM warrant officer. She reports to the mysterious Major General Beale, who we’ll see for the first time in The Ones Who Live, played by Terry O’Quinn.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC