Updated with Season 10 of The Walking Dead, the finale for which will air later this year, as well as the premiere of The Walking Dead: World Beyond.



Several years ago, I worked on a project for AMC called The Walking Dead: The Journey So Far. It was a two-hour special summing up The Walking Dead ahead of the Season 7 premiere. While working on that project, me and the other producers decided it would be fun to come up with a timeline for the events of TWD. And it was fun – until we tried to factor in where the events took place and how long it took to get to each made-up destination. The experiment ended in frustration, anger, and tears.

Now I’m trying again, and leaving travel time out of it. The following timeline captures the major moments and milestones of The Walking Dead universe, including the events of the spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead. The timeline is arranged by day because in the zombie apocalypse, no one has any use for calendars.

Season 1

Day 1 – The outbreak begins.

Day 3 – (Fear) Power goes out in Los Angeles. Traffic at a standstill. Police cordons. Riots.

Day 4 – (Fear) State of Emergency declared in California. National guard arrives.

Day 5 – (Fear) Safe zones are set up. People outside the safe zones are executed.

Day 15 – (Fear) Griselda dies from septic shock.

Day 16 – (Fear) Operation Cobalt, in which the government starts bombing Los Angeles, goes into effect. Other major coastal cities are also bombed. Madison’s family and Daniel’s family set sail with Strand on his yacht, The Abigail.

Day 16 (approx) – Atlanta falls and the government tries to bomb the zombies.

Day 20 – (Fear) The Abigail makes landfall in Mexico.

Day 21 – (Fear) The group takes refuge in Thomas Abigail’s estate.

Day 22 – (Fear) Thomas dies. Strand goes back on his decision to kill himself. Daniel sets the house on fire, causing everyone to flee.

Day 24 – (Fear) Madison, Alicia, Ofelia, and Strand take refuge in a beachfront hotel.

Day 26 – (Fear) Nick is brought to the La Colonia encampment by Luciana.

Day 34 – (Fear) Chris leaves Travis at a farm and goes off with some nogoodniks they met along the way. A car accident causes Chris to break his leg, and his traveling companions kill him so he won’t be a burden.

Day 36 – (Fear) Travis makes it to the hotel, but so do the boys who killed his son. When Travis learns this, he beats them both to death. Ofelia makes it to the US border and onto the Otto compound.

Day 38 – (Fear) Travis, Alicia, and Madison are captured by the Otto militia. Nick and Luciana have also been captured. That night, Travis is shot and throws himself out of a flying helicopter.

Day 39 – (Fear) Nick, Alicia, Luciana, and Madison arrive at the Otto compound. Daniel is brought to the Gonzales Dam.

Day 41 – (Fear) Strand reunites with Daniel at the dam, and Daniel believes Ofelia to be dead.

Day 53 – (Fear) After much fighting and violence – that began even before the zombie apocalypse – the Black Hat Nation moves onto the Otto compound, leading to tensions between the Black Hat Nation and the Otto militia.

Day 59 – Rick wakes in the hospital. Morgan and his son Duane are the first people he meets.

Day 60 – Rick is rescued by Glenn. Merle is handcuffed on the roof. Glenn brings Rick back to their camp, where Rick reunites with Lori and Carl.

Day 61 – Merle cuts off his hand and escapes. Amy and Ed die.

Day 62 – (Fear) Ofelia is bitten, and Madison attempts to keep her alive long enough for Daniel to reach her and say goodbye. She is not successful.

Day 63 – Group arrives at the CDC

Day 64 – Dr. Jenner explains the virus to our group. On his way out, Jenner tells Rick that everyone is infected with the walker virus. The CDC blows up.

Day 64 – (Fear) Nick blows up the dam.

Season 2

Day 66 – Sophia runs away from the group.

Day 67 – Carl is shot. The group finds Hershel’s farm

Day 68 – Lori finds out she is pregnant. Rick gives Carl his iconic sheriff’s hat.

Day 69 – Glenn discovers the barn walkers, but it is a couple more days before the rest of the group discover them.

Day 71 – Zombie Sophia is killed.

Day 81 – Dale dies

Day 82 – Rick kills Shane, but Shane reanimates minutes later. Carl shoots zombie Shane dead, saving his father.

Day 83 – The group leaves the farm, included Hershel and his family.

Season 3

Day 301 – The group moves into the prison

Day 302 – Hershel loses his leg

Day 303 (approx) – Michonne and Andrea find Woodbury

Day 309 – T-Dog dies. Lori gives birth, then dies. Michonne leaves Woodbury, but Andrea stays.

Day 310 – Maggie and Glenn are captured and taken to the Governor, then rescued from Woodbury. Andrea and the Governor begin a sexual relationship. Michonne shoots out the Governor’s eye.

Day 312 – First attack on the prison, with the Governor sending in a “walker bomb.”

Day 313 – Tyreese’s group joins Woodbury.

Day 314 – While on a run, Rick runs into Morgan again. He is in a bad way after his son died, and declines going back to the prison with Rick.

Day 317 (approx) – Rick and the Governor meet in hopes of striking a deal. The Governor wants Michonne in exchange for not attacking the prison. In reality, he is making plans to ambush the prison.

Day 319 – Merle delivers Michonne to the Governor, but lets her go at the last minute. As a result, the Governor kills Merle.

Day 320 – First attack on the prison by the Governor’s army. Things don’t go well, and the army tries to leave. The Governor kills his people in cold blood. Back at Woodbury, Andrea dies at the zombie teeth of Milton.

Day 321 – Tyreese, Sasha, Karen, and a handful of Woodbury survivors join the group at the prison. This is also the approximate day that the Governor burns Woodbury to the ground.

Season 4

Day 324 – Morgan is taken captive by Eastman.

Day 381 (approx) – The Governor returns to using his given name, Philip, and joins Tara, Lilly, their father, and Lilly’s daughter Meghan, in an apartment.

Day 493 (approx) – Bob joins the group

Day 500 – Patrick dies, the first victim of a severe flu that threatens to kill everyone in the prison.

Day 501 – Carol kills Karen and David after they contract the flu

Day 503 – Carol is exiled

Day 504 – The Governor attacks the prison again with a newly formed army that includes Lilly and Tara. The attack is bloody. The Governor kills Hershel. Meghan is bitten by a walker and killed by The Governor. Michonne stabs the Governor, who is finished off by Lilly. Lilly is then eaten by walkers. The prison is destroyed, and the survivors flee, splitting up into several disorganized groups.

Day 505 – Carl eats an entire 112 oz can of pudding. Carol is reunited with Tyreese and the kids. Glenn and Tara meet Rosita, Abraham, and Eugene.

Day 506 – Michonne reunites with Carl and Rick

Day 507 – Beth is abducted

Day 509 – Beth wakes in the hospital. Lizzie kills Mika, and Carol kills Lizzie.

Day 511 – Rick’s group arrives at Terminus and soon discovers almost everyone else when they are all imprisoned in a train car. Carol and Tyreese take down Terminus, allowing Rick and the others to escape.

Season 5

Day 512 – Group meets Gabriel, go to his church. Bob is eaten. Rick’s group slaughters Gareth’s group.

Day 513 – Carol is hit by a car and taken to the same hospital Beth was taken to.

Day 514 – Beth is killed by Dawn. Daryl kills Dawn. Noah joins the group.

Day 522 – Morgan kills Eastman.

Day 531 – Tyreese dies from a walker bite.

Day 536 – The group seeks protection from a tornado by hiding out in a barn.

Day 537 – Group meets Aaron and helps him save his boyfriend, Eric.

Day 538 – Group arrives at Alexandria, which will end up being their home for the foreseeable future.

Day 541 – Rick, Carol, and Daryl finds a walker with a W carved into its forehead.

Day 545 (approx) – Noah and Aiden are killed by walkers.

Day 546 – Carl meets Enid.

Day 547 – Rick brings a walker into Alexandria to teach the residents about the realities of the new world. Drunken Pete kills Reg with Michonne’s sword. Rick executes Pete. Morgan arrives at Alexandria.

Season 6

Day 552 – The Wolves attack Alexandria. Nicholas kills himself. Maggie reveals she is pregnant. Daryl is captured by Dwight and a few others we will later learn are Saviors. Morgan imprisons a Wolf.

Day 553 – Walls collapse around Alexandria, causing walkers to breach the town. Deanna, Jessie and Sam are killed by walkers. Ron blames Rick for this, and attempts to kill him. He misses, and shoots out Carl’s eye. Michonne kills Ron.

Day 584 (approx) – Rick and Daryl meet Jesus. Michonne and Rick begin a relationship.

Day 585 – Jesus brings Rick’s group to the Hilltop, where they meet Gregory and are told about the Saviors.

Day 586 – Rick’s group attacks a Saviors compound.

Day 595 – Rosita begins a relationship with Spencer.

Day 596 – Denise is killed by Dwight. Carol leaves Alexandria.

Day 597 – Maggie is rushed to Hilltop when she experiences problems with her pregnancy. Carol is injured; strangers take her and Morgan to the Kingdom.

Season 7

Day 598 – Rick’s group meets Negan for the first time. Negan kills Abraham and Glenn. Daryl is taken back to the Savior’s compound.

Day 600 – Tara gets separated from Heath on a run, and ends up in Oceanside.

Day 602 – Carl makes his first attempt to kill Negan. He doesn’t succeed, but Negan takes a shine to the kid. Daryl escapes the Saviors compound. Spencer tries to get Negan to kill Rick, but instead, Negan kills Spencer. Rosita attempts to kill Negan, but fails. Olivia is killed by one of Negan’s followers. Eugene is brought to the Sanctuary, given a room, and put in charge of creating ammunition.

Day 604 – Rick asks Ezekiel to join the fight against Negan. Ezekiel refuses, but does give Daryl sanctuary. Eugene makes suicide pills for Negan’s “wives,” but refuses to turn them over when he finds out they plan to use them to kill Negan. Rick meets Gabriel’s kidnappers, the Scavengers. They agree to let Gabriel go in exchange for guns.

Day 608 – Benjamin is killed by a Savior.

Day 609 – Tara leads a small group to Oceanside and tries to get them to fight against the Saviors. Oceanside refuses, but they do turn over their guns for the battle.

Day 610 – Rick’s group approach the Savior’s compound, intent on starting war with them. Jadis and the Scavengers turn on Rick’s group, saying they made a better deal with the Saviors. Negan reveals his “secret weapon,” Sasha, taking delight in having turned her to his side. Instead, she took Eugene’s suicide pills, so when the coffin she has been napping in opens, she is a walker and attacks. At the last minute, the Kingdom and the Hilltop arrive and join the battle. Shiva attacks, and Negan is genuinely surprised to see they have a tiger on their side. After a bloody battle, the Saviors and the Scavengers retreat.

Season 8

Day 621 – Various Savior outposts are attacked by the Alexandria/Kingdom/Hilltop militia. At Jesus’ insistence, the Hilltop takes some Saviors as prisoners of war.

Day 622 – Carl encounters Siddiq in the forest again. Rick advocated for Carl to kill Siddiq, or leave him to die. Instead, the two fight walkers together. This is when Carl is bitten. Maggie locks Gregory in the POW pen. The Saviors attack Alexandria. While asking Oceanside to help fight the Saviors, Enid kills their leader. Henry kills a Savior in retaliation for his brother Benjamin’s murder.

Day 623 – Carl opts to kill himself before he can turn. Simon kills all the Scavengers except for Jadis, who hides. Rick and Negan fight; neither wins, but Jadis takes Negan captive. Maggie meets Georgie’s group, who gives her the instructions for changing the world. The Saviors attack Hilltop with weapons soaked in walker blood.

Day 624 – Several of the Savior POWs escape.

Day 625 – Rick and Morgan hunt down and kill all the POWs who escaped. Jadis releases Negan.

Day 626 – Negan kills Simon for attempting to take over the Saviors.

Day 627 – Rick has the chance to kill Negan, but attempting to honor Carl’s wishes, Rick takes him prisoner instead. This infuriates Maggie.

Day 628 – Morgan sends Jadis to Alexandria while he lives in the abandoned Heaps.

Day 678 (approx) – Morgan leaves the Heaps – and The Walking Dead – and joins Fear the Walking Dead.

Day 688 (approx) – Maggie gives birth to her and Glenn’s son, Hershel.

…

Day 790 (approx) – (Fear) Madison sacrifices herself to save the rest of her family.

Day 794 – (Fear) Morgan is found by John, and the two are saved from a hostile group by Althea.

Day 795 – (Fear) Nick is shot dead by Charlie.

Day 827 – (Fear) A hurricane hits. Morgan decides to leave Texas and return to Alexandria.

Day 828 – (Fear) Morgan finds Wendell and Sarah in Mississippi.

Day 834 – (Fear) This is when the decision is made that Morgan and Alicia’s group will make it a point to help people.

Day 954 – (Fear) Plane crashes; Luciana is the only one injured.

Day 956 – (Fear) John and June find Dwight, still looking for his wife.

Day 959 – (Fear) Nuclear reactor melts down.

Day 998 – (Fear) Virginia’s group shows up. They kill Logan and invite the Caravan to join them. The Caravan declines.

Season 9

Day 1171 – Gregory is executed after a failed attempt at assassinating Maggie.

Day 1206 – Jadis – now going by Anne – takes Gabriel hostage and plans to turn him over to the helicopter team.

Day 1207 – Maggie goes to kill Negan, but decides he will be more miserable if left alive. Anne does not turn Gabriel over to the helicopter team. Rick falls off his horse and is badly injured. He blows up the bridge his community had been building in order to keep a herd of walkers from Hilltop. Most believe Rick to be dead, but Anne finds him and takes him away in a helicopter.

Day 1447 – Michonne’s old friend, Jocelyn, shows up at Alexandria with a group of children. That night, Jocelyn, her kids, and the kids of Alexandria – including Judith – disappear.

Day 1448 – Michonne and Daryl find the kids. Michonne kills Jocelyn and most of her kids. This is where Michonne decides to keep Alexandria isolated for protection.

Day 1450 (approx) – Michonne gives birth to her and Rick’s son, R.J.

…

Day 3397 – Judith brings Magna’s group back to Alexandria, much to Michonne’s chagrin.

Day 3400 – Michonne brings Magna’s group to the Hilltop to live. Jesus is killed by walkers in a spooky graveyard. Negan escapes his prison cell when he discovers it was left unlocked.

Day 3401 – Negan finds the Sanctuary in ruins. Realizing there is nothing left for him here, he returns to Alexandria and goes back to his cell. Luke and Alden are captured by Alpha and the Whisperers. Michonne returns with Lydia as a captive.

Day 3403 – The Whisperers show up at the gates of Alexandria and demand they turn over Alpha’s daughter, Lydia. Daryl hands her over, and Henry leaves to join her.

Day 3404 – Alpha and Beta try to force Lydia to kill Henry. Daryl and a few others arrive to rescue Henry, and they take Lydia back with them.

Day 3406 – The community fair begins at the Kingdom. The leaders of the Hilltop, the Kingdom, and Alexandria sign a charter promising to protect one another should the Whisperers attack.

Day 3407 – Daryl finds a warning from the Whisperers: the heads of their friends on spikes, outlining the border of the Whisperer’s “territory:” Ozzy, Alek, D.J., Frankie, Tammy, Rodney, Addy, Enid, Tara, and Henry.

Day 3498 – A blizzard hits. The Kingdom falls and they are forced to leave for other communities. In Alexandria, a chimney explosion sends residents into the storm. Judith runs off to find Dog, gets lost, and is rescued by Negan.

Day 3499 – Carol breaks up with Ezekiel.

Day 3500 – Carol and Michonne’s group arrive at Alexandria while Alpha and Beta plan their next move. Meanwhile, Ezekiel reaches out to Judith over the radio to promise a return to Kingdom in the future, but a mysterious voice asks if anyone is there, moments too late.

Season 10 (Updates by Dave Trumbore)



Day 3659 – Dante arrives in Alexandria as a spy for Alpha with the task of sowing discord and paranoia, unbeknownst to the Alexandrians.

Day 3767 – Evidence of the Whisperers is discovered, setting everyone on edge, even as the mask-wearing group themselves make their way back home.

Day 3768 – A fallen satellite sets fire to the area around Oceanside; the colonies’ survivors unite to help put it out and fight back the Walker herd that arrives. Carol and Daryl encounter Alpha.

Day 3771 – As the survivors continue to battle against fragments of the horde of Walkers, Alpha expands her territory and cuts off supply lines to Michonne, Daryl, Carol, and the others. Carol, now taking medication, begins hallucinating.

Day 3774 – Carol makes a deal with Negan: His freedom for Alpha’s head.

Day 3775 – Negan is captured by the Whisperers. Alpha’s operatives continue to sabotage the Alexandria colony.

Day 3776 – Negan is given a chance to prove himself among the Whisperers. Eugene makes radio contact with a mysterious woman from another group of survivors while the Alexandrians come down with a strange sickness.

Day 3777 – Lydia is freed from her cell to make room for a captured Whisperer. Dante smothers Cheryl and kills Siddiq before being subdued by Rosita. Mary, also known as Gamma, begins to have a change of heart.

Day 3778 – Dante is imprisoned and later killed by Gabriel while Mary shares what she knows about Alpha’s walker horde. Michonne comes across a man named Virgil and decides to investigate his claim that he lives on a Navy base.

Day 3779 – Michonne leaves Judith with a walkie talkie to stay in touch. Carol leads everyone into a cave as she chases Alpha, only for the group to realize that it was a trap.

Day 3780 – A cave-in traps Magna and Connie inside. Outside, both Alpha and Daryl are injured in a fight while Mary’s situation in Alexandria becomes more perilous. Negan suggests that Mary is a spy, sending Beta after her, killing several townspeople before failing to kidnap her. Elsewhere, Michonne finds herself locked up on Bloodsworth Island.

Day 3781 – Aaron, Rosita, Judith, and Mary head to Hilltop, as do Daryl and Lydia, who was unable to kill her mother Alpha, after the latter tends to his wounds. Ezekiel and Carol follow suit. Meanwhile, Alpha’s Whisperers treat her own wounds, causing her to feel stronger than ever. Alpha and the Whisperers set fire to Hilltop and scatter the survivors. Yumiko discovers Magna, very much alive, walking among the horde and covered in Walker guts. At Bloodsworth, Michonne hallucinates thanks to the drugged food she’s given, but eventually manages to escape captivity with fellow prisoners, even deciding to spare Virgil.

Day 3782 – Earl and Mary sacrifice themselves to protect the children while Negan betrays Alpha and kills her, placing her head on the border pike. However, Beta and the Whisperers find her animated head before Carol does, leading Beta to keep Alpha’s head with him and continuing to follow her orders. Negan later proves his loyalty by killing the Whisperers who have taken Daryl hostage. Eugene prepares an expedition with Yumiko and Ezekiel to meet up with the woman on the radio, Stephanie, and her group in West Virginia. Michonne goes off in search of Rick, with Judith’s blessing, and happens upon two survivors that she escorts as they walk toward a large convoy of humans.

Day 3783 – Beta kills Alpha’s reanimated head and skins it, sewing half of her face into the other half of his mask before rejoining and leading the horde. Carol, Daryl, and Negan return to Alexandria, the latter trying to befriend Lydia with disastrous results, settling for more of a twisted father-figure role. Daryl, too, cares for Judith by teaching her his tracking ways out in the dangerous woods. Eugene’s expedition comes across Princess, a lonely and isolated survivor who eventually leads them to bicycles as a new mode of transportation. Aaron and Alden, who are inevitably captured, watch the Beta/Alpha hybrid Whisperer lead the horde toward the Tower, a familiar locale to longtime TWD viewers, the abandoned hospital.

Season 10 finale TBD