Is The Walking Dead's Commonwealth storyline too similar to Walking Dead: World Beyond's CRM angle? After a decade spent with Robert Kirkman's zombie apocalypse, it's no surprise the Walking Dead franchise is moving beyond forest campsites and killing undead with frying pans. Throughout all 3 Walking Dead TV shows on AMC, the settlements are getting larger, increasingly civilized, and more sophisticated in their ability to fend off reanimated corpses. Nowhere is this more obvious that The Walking Dead season 11, which finally throws open the gates to the Commonwealth.
Eugene's group of protagonists are awestruck by The Walking Dead's Commonwealth, from its armored military to the variety of sweet treats for sale on idyllic streets. The Commonwealth has a political infrastructure, a communications division, and its own legal framework - none of which the guests from Alexandria are accustomed to. At the same time, Walking Dead: World Beyond is taking its first tentative steps into Civic Republic Military territory. After much teasing, World Beyond season 2 is finally spotlighting The Walking Dead's CRM - a military civilization that operates in absolute secrecy and promises to restore the entire world to its former glory. Both storylines are a far cry from Rick Grimes hiding in a tank... but is The Walking Dead's CRM arc overlapping too much with the Commonwealth?
The Walking Dead's Commonwealth and CRM are, superficially speaking, already very close cousins. Both have restored a sense of normality within their borders, both are secured by military soldiers wearing ominous armor, and both comply with a strict framework of legality and leadership. The Commonwealth and CRM each have an enigmatic leader, indulge in forgotten luxuries such as food and gadgets, and both are ruthless to anyone who dares disrupt their peace. Despite these many exterior comparisons, Walking Dead: World Beyond season 2 highlights the CRM-Commonwealth parallels even further by hitting more or less the same narrative beats as The Walking Dead season 11.
Both plots revolve around a group of heroes (Eugene's group in TWD, Iris' in World Beyond) entering a far bigger community than they're used to, then gradually acclimatizing to their advanced new surroundings. Just as Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko and Princess don't entirely trust The Walking Dead's Commonwealth, Iris, Felix, Hope and Elton aren't quite sold on the CRM, and both protagonist factions covertly investigate the hidden darkness behind their respective suspect communities. The foreboding nature of The Walking Dead's CRM and Commonwealth are made obvious to the viewer in both cases - whether that be Lance Hornsby's secret machinations in The Walking Dead season 11, or Lieutenant Colonel Kublek destroying allied communities in World Beyond season 2.
Such similar premises inevitably result in copycat scenes. Iris, Felix and "Elton" sitting in a CRM holding pen mirrors how Eugene's group were held behind chain link fences by The Walking Dead's Commonwealth soldiers. Dr. Belshaw romancing Leo Bennett to earn his trust is reminiscent of how the Commonwealth sends a fake Stephanie to dupe the smitten Eugene. Silas getting arrested while attempting to break out his friends has echoes of when Mercer catches Eugene using the Commonwealth radio illegally.
The Walking Dead's CRM and Commonwealth do carry some distinctive qualities. The CRM is far bigger and far more evil than the Commonwealth, and whereas Commonwealth soldiers have been compared to Star Wars Stormtroopers, CRM soldiers look more like Doctor Who's Judoon. Nevertheless, The Walking Dead's Commonwealth and CRM storylines are treading perilously similar territory, compromising the effect each narrative has on viewers who keep up with both shows.
Perhaps the bleed-over can be attributed to how AMC is spreading Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead into a much larger brand than the comic books intended. The Commonwealth features heavily in the final chapters of The Walking Dead's source material, but the CRM is a TV-original creation. Instead of the Commonwealth enjoying a monopoly in the "massive community" stakes, the CRM steps on the Commonwealth's toes and vice versa, proving there's only so many avenues to explore before the zombie apocalypse begins repeating itself.