Anything titled "Project V" simply has to be bad news - here's what we know about The Walking Dead: World Beyond's latest big CRM reveal. Since The Walking Dead season 8, the CRM (Civic Republic Military) has lingered in the background, present throughout all 3 AMC TV shows, but not coming to the fore as a dominant threat... yet. Though the CRM has involved itself in both The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead, it's Walking Dead: World Beyond making most progress lifting the Civic Republic lid.
Walking Dead: World Beyond season 2 has dropped vital reveals about the franchise's answer to Thanos. CRM scientists are working on a method of turning zombies into mush using mushrooms. The Civic Republic is a military-led community whose residents have no idea about the shady stuff its army is getting up to. And, most important of all, the Civic Republic is drawing closer to a planned exchange of power, during which the CRM will hand over control to an elected government. The imminent demotion Major General Beale and Lieutenant Colonel Kublek are facing might be why the CRM destroyed allied communities Omaha and Campus Colony - an attack that cost approximately 100,000 lives.
Thankfully, a small resistance is forming. Walking Dead: World Beyond's Bennett sisters, Iris and Hope, are joined by their father Leo, security officer Felix, and straggler picked up along the way, Percy. Working from information provided by Huck (finally realizing her CRM employers aren't who she thought), the plucky protagonists discover the CRM's most shocking secret yet - Project V.
Everything We Know About Walking Dead's Project V
Walking Dead: World Beyond previously mentioned a CRM "10-year plan," which means the Civic Republic was founded very soon after the zombie outbreak began, and every indication points toward Project V being a long-standing experiment - something the CRM has been working on for many years. At the very least, Project V has been underway since Dr. Leo Bennett joined from Campus Colony, as the opening flashback of Walking Dead: World Beyond season 2's "Who Are You?" shows Dr. Belshaw dropping Project V-related documents in front of a googly-eyed Bennett.
Even by the CRM's secretive standards, Project V is a clandestine operation known only to a select, trusted few. Dr. Belshaw and Lieutenant Colonel Kublek are obviously knee-deep in V, but the likes of Leo Bennett and even Huck, Kublek's own daughter, were left completely in the dark. Dr. Abbott - the zombified test subject who was once a colleague to Bennett and Belshaw - either discovered Project V before he was supposed to, or was told about the secret goings on and refused to take part, meaning he joined V as an unwilling subject rather than a living, breathing researcher.
Project V is what Walking Dead: World Beyond's post-credits sequences have been showing since season 1. Every scene of Dr. Belshaw in her secret basement and the zombies tied to upright trolleys was a glimpse into the inner sanctum of Project V. The reason Belshaw was sent to seduce Leo Bennett was, ultimately, to ensure his loyalty and recruit Iris and Hope's father for the Project V team.
The CRM Used Project V Against Campus Colony & Omaha
The Project V sample Felix steals from the CRM's refrigerated storage comes as a liquid within a test tube, but Dr. Bennett labeling the substance a chemical weapon means this stuff can be mass-produced and wielded as a lethal vapor over large areas. Apparently, this is what happened to Campus Colony and Omaha. Just as the CRM misled citizens into believing these two fallen settlements had been overrun by zombies, Walking Dead: World Beyond misled viewers into thinking the CRM destroyed them by luring those zombies. Season 2's premiere went so far as to show Elizabeth Kublek having her troops blast through Omaha's walls and drawing a huge column (or horde, for the traditionalists) toward the vulnerable city. We now know this was just a cover-up, and everyone inside Omaha was already killed by Project V before a single corpse staggered inside.
Omaha's downfall now makes much more sense. Even with their walls breached, the 90,000-strong Omaha should've been able to fend off any incoming horde, but defenses were nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, Kublek was confronted by a burned, dying soldier during the Omaha incident. Though these could've looked like zombie marks or explosion burns at the time, it's clear this deserter was caught up in the initial wave of Project V that swept over Omaha.
What Is Walking Dead's Project V - A Weapon Or Experiment?
It's a tragic reality that The Walking Dead's CRM could've recreated any number of terrible real-world chemical weapons to use against Omaha and Campus Colony. Beale's bunch possess the resources to concoct such horrific gases, and are morally bankrupt enough to actually deploy them. With international treaties no longer relevant in the zombie apocalypse, lethal and inhumane chemicals can wipe out entire communities without fear of reprisal.
But with so many chemical weapons to pick from already, why the cloak and dagger experimentation? The CRM could have one of their classroom students whip up a batch of something lethal between lessons, but Project V is led by the very best scientific minds working in secret on a procession of zombie test subjects. Project V must be a special kind of chemical weapon unique to The Walking Dead.
One possibility is CRM scientists engineering the zombie virus into a weapon. Dr. Belshaw and her few in-the-know assistants could be distilling the zombie infection into a substance that turns the target undead upon contact, creating new columns instantly without needing to engage directly. Alternatively, Project V could be Dr. Belshaw's attempt to develop a zombie cure. The gas' purpose might be killing the target without having them reanimate afterwards, which would represent a major breakthrough in restoring humanity. If Belshaw can kill someone without them reanimating after, maybe she can one day stop reanimation altogether. Either scenario would account for why victims from Omaha and Campus Colony are being shipped in for further study.
All The Walking Dead: World Beyond has confirmed thus far is that Project V is lethal, but more specialized to zombies than your standard wartime chemical weapon.
What Project V Could Mean For The Walking Dead's Future
Nuthin' good. Way back in Walking Dead: World Beyond's season 2 premiere, Lieutenant Colonel Kublek intimated that decimating Omaha and Campus Colony was just the beginning of a larger mission. Now, in episode 6, Felix finds a storage facility containing rows and rows of massive Project V canisters, suggesting Kublek has another target in mind - and Portland would be the most likely victim. In the so-called Alliance of the Three, the Civic Republic has already taken down Omaha, and Kublek's assistant mentioned Portland getting suspicious when communications were lost. With the Alliance of the Three triangle now turned into a line, it's surely only a matter of time before the Portland ring needs removing too. Indeed, the CRM's entire purpose for the alliance might've been gathering enough intelligence to execute large-scale Project V test runs on fellow communities.
Project V could have even more damning implications for the wider Walking Dead franchise. If the CRM hasn't received enough data from Omaha and Campus Colony, what's to stop them attacking Alexandria, or The Commonwealth? Maybe this is why Rick Grimes never returned home after being transported to the CRM via helicopter - he knows Major General Beale will soon start firing Project V toward Judith, Daryl and the others.
The CRM's Project V twist sets up an intriguing moral dilemma, which Walking Dead: World Beyond succinctly alludes toward with Iris' comments about animal testing. Whatever the CRM higher-ups might intend the gas for, Dr. Belshaw genuinely believes Omaha and Campus Colony were necessary sacrifices for humanity's continued survival. Everyone in The Walking Dead wants the zombie apocalypse to end, but Project V forces them to consider how steep the human price should be - because, right now, the CRM is waving a blank check.