Did The Walking Dead just subtly introduce its new, faster variant zombies during season 11's Commonwealth attack?! The Walking Dead's zombies are largely faithful to the George A. Romero mold of slow, unintelligent, herd-like monsters, but a post-credits scene in the final episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond teased an evolution. Set in the French laboratory that seemingly caused the outbreak, Noah Emmerich's Dr. Jenner references European "variants" he hasn't yet recorded in the United States. As Jenner utters these words, a corpse reanimates in the lab and runs straight for the door, clearly faster and more intelligent than your generic Walking Dead zombie. We know, therefore, that an undead evolution is imminent.
Indeed, the evolution might've started already. In The Walking Dead season 11, episode 18 ("A New Deal") Lance Hornsby's agents slaughter a cleanup crew in the Commonwealth, allowing them to resurrect and wreak havoc upon citizens enjoying the Founder's Day celebrations. These zombies appear normal at first, but looking a little closer, several are noticeably quicker than usual in The Walking Dead. The first obvious example is the zombie who attacks a prone victim next to the hay bales of Ezekiel's animal display. It almost runs toward the cowering Commonwealther, mounts him on the ground, then rapidly tears away chunks of flesh. It's closer to the rage virus infected from 28 Days Later than The Walking Dead's past seasons. An even better example can be glimpsed shortly after Daryl loses Judith in the crowd. A male zombie with long, dark hair literally tackles a running victim to the ground. Usually, zombies in The Walking Dead are so slow characters can outpace them by simply walking away, but not this guy.
Variant Zombies Aren't New To The Walking Dead
Smarter, faster zombies may feel new to The Walking Dead, but these mysterious variants are actually as old as the apocalypse itself. The Walking Dead season 1 featured numerous examples of undead moving quickly, trying to open doors, picking up rocks, etc. This was subsequently attributed to the AMC TV series still figuring out its undead, and zombies quickly settled into the plodding morons The Walking Dead's audience are now intimately familiar with. The Walking Dead: World Beyond and The Walking Dead season 11 are now formally reintroducing these evolved zombies as official canon. The exact mechanics of why they emerge, their regional significance, and why hardly anyone in The Walking Dead has seen one remains unknown, but with Daryl Dixon heading to France for his spinoff series, answers are surely on their way.
How Fast Will The Walking Dead's Variant Zombies Be?
Examining both The Walking Dead: World Beyond's undead scientist and the potential variants inside the Commonwealth, variant zombies don't appear capable of outright sprinting as seen in 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake. Instead, these evolved walkers are more agile, sprightly, and show a short burst of pace when hunting prey. That doesn't mean they're running all the time, however, and the Commonwealth zombies in The Walking Dead season 11, episode 18 shuffle around normally at first before becoming unnaturally quick. Even going back to The Walking Dead's old fast zombies (chasing Rick & Glenn when they're covered in guts during episode 2, or pursuing Sophia through the forest in season 2, episode 1), no reanimated corpse ever did more than break out into a light jog.
That's not to say sprinting zombies don't exist at all in The Walking Dead, however. The importance of the word "variant" is that more than one can exist (as we've all found out since 2020). The Walking Dead has the flexibility to introduce some zombies that are smarter, some that are faster, some that are stronger, and some that are all three. As that evolution continues, it's not ridiculous to imagine The Walking Dead's spinoffs might include zombies that are actually faster than humans. Then the fun really begins...
The Walking Dead continues Sunday on AMC.