When do ‘too many’ spin-offs alienate an audience in a world of connected series and multiverses? Let’s dive into this topic with The Walking Dead and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In 2010, AMC aired the first season of The Walking Dead (TWD). As of 2024, TWD has six spinoff shows. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) began in 2008 with the first Iron Man. Still, the fall 2024 season brings in the premiere season of Agatha All Along, a follow-up spin-off to the limited series WandaVision. The spin-off Daryl Dixon, which premiered its second season on Sept. 29, begs the question: is it possible to get comfort-show burnout?
The Retrospective
‘The Walking Dead’
The Walking Dead first aired on AMC in 2010, and by 2012 landed a spot in the top five most-watched television shows on air. It reached its peak in 2014, with the fifth season’s premiere harboring 17.29 million views, and the rest of the season averaged 14 million views per episode. We later see a decline in popularity once the show continued past its eighth season. By the time the show aired its final season in 2022, season 11, the show had lost most of its popularity.
The show was originally adapted into a television series based on a set of comic books. This was then followed by the spin-off Fear the Walking Dead, which began airing in August 2015 and ran until 2023. The first few seasons were met with great reception. Audiences liked the new perspective of the West Coast during the ‘walker’ apocalypse and a closer look into the early days, as TWD dives right into a few months into the world’s collapse.
The universe wasn’t expanded again until 2020 when we saw the premiere of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, a unique take on the universe that audiences hadn’t seen. At the time of airing, TWD had begun losing its steam as viewership dipped, so the new spin-off took a young adult approach to the show, with the main cast being teenagers. By this point in the main show, the main character, Rick Grimes, had left, leaving the supporting characters to take on the role of leading the show. World Beyond gave viewers a setup and glimpse into what was going on with the show’s lead since being off of the main series. However, audiences would not learn what happened to him until 2024 in the airing of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The first spin-off Fear the Walking Dead wouldn’t begin introducing characters from the main TWD show as crossovers and cameos until the airing of World Beyond.
Now, this can be very confusing and hard to wrap one’s head around, especially when four other spin-offs haven’t even been explained yet. However, when watching it, the situation does not get much better. It falls into an odd conundrum where to learn what happened to Rick Grimes and understand the narrative in The Ones Who Live, you must not only watch the last two seasons of TWD, which he is not in, but you must also watch all eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead and both seasons of World Beyond.
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Marvel has traditionally been popular in the media, but it never saw the credit and popularity it deserved until the introduction of The Avengers (2012). Audiences knew going into the film that this movie would integrate several heroes, their backstories, and the prior Marvel films released between 2008 and 2012. Nobody was surprised if they had to do research or watch the preceding films before The Avengers. That first Avengers film created a boom that Marvel had never seen before.
Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame were the two highest-grossing Marvel films, both earning over $2 billion worldwide. That’s a lot of superhero power. Not everyone who watched those films in theaters had watched every prior Marvel film, but it was clear these people may not understand entirely what was going on. Audiences were okay with that. That compliance would not be seen again after Endgame and the leading hero Iron Man’s death.
Some audiences were shocked to find that to fully understand Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, they had to be caught up on the films previously released in the MCU, and the Disney+ series WandaVision as well. Considering Disney+ is a paid prescription service, it was not accessible to everyone who sat, all 11.5 million of them, for the second Doctor Strange film.
Something very similar occurred in the mega-movie crossover event Deadpool & Wolverine. Considering both characters, Deadpool and Wolverine, had been separate from the MCU in their films, it felt odd to hear audiences needed an understanding of the MCU timeline to understand it. Thanks to the latest Doctor Strange, Avengers, and Spider-Man films, MCU fans were officially introduced to the multiverse.
What is the multiverse? It is the concept that there are many parallel universes with different versions and histories that mirror this one. One day you may have toast, and on that same day in a different universe, you may have eggs. The recent Marvel films took that concept and brought it in, where we could see the different live-action Spidermen in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Deadpool & Wolverine amplifies The Walking Dead dilemma when taking into account the X-Men trilogy. Logan, Deadpool 1, Deadpool 2, and both seasons of Loki must also be watched to have a complete understanding of the movie.
It must be noted these kinds of movies are for the fans. They thrive on the fanbase’s knowledge and enthusiasm for the series, so they cater to the fans who have already seen all of these shows and films. The issue with this scenario is due to the fan service, it alienates casual viewers.
The Dilemma
It is unsure if the pattern between these two connected series is based on the loss of the leading character or if the stories have simply moved past their prime, but the backlash from audiences as well as the impact on the companies are clear, as neither side is left satisfied.
Catering to fans can be great. This is part of the reason why TWD fan favorite Daryl Dixon got his spin-off. It’s also a reason why the third MCU Spider-Man film recreated a well-known meme. With that being said, a line must be drawn when connecting a series. Needing to watch and understand the base show to understand a spin-off is a given. It is a spin-off because audiences liked part of the main show so much, they wanted more. The issue of alienation comes into play when audiences must watch years of spin-offs to understand the main story.
These shows, like many others, are comfort shows to their typical audience. However, it can feel like a chore to get through when it takes so much to follow along.
The truth of the matter is when it comes to grand storylines and series with a loyal fanbase, the creators will cater to their loyal audience. Shows like The Walking Dead will continue releasing episodes catering to the fans of characters, as we see with Daryl Dixon’s second season’s premiere. Marvel will also continue to expand its cinematic universe with this fall’s witchy wonder Agatha All Along. At the end of the day, as long as those audiences show a want for those stories, the creators will continue to provide them.
The advice for casual viewers is simple: watch what makes you happy because there is no shame in making a few Google searches along the way.