The Walking Dead's Zombie Outbreak Origin FINALLY Revealed

The Walking Dead - both comic and TV show - has always positioned itself as a different kind of zombie story.

Back when the universe kicked off, creator Robert Kirkman wanted to avoid repeating the cliches the sub-genre had relied on so heavily. Consequently, the narrative wasn't about the start of an apocalypse, or about a threat that could be stopped before it got worse. This was a post-apocalypse rather than apocalypse, and the whys and hows were kept deliberately vague to put the viewer in the same shoes as the characters.

This meant never revealing exactly why the zombie outbreak happened in the first place.

From a story perspective, not touching on this subject fit the characters. After all, it wouldn't make sense for this band of everyday survivors to acquire grand knowledge of how the world ended. Likewise, it wouldn't benefit them to go searching for it either. They're rough-and-tumble warriors living day to day, not top-tier scientists looking for a magical cure to save the world.

Of course, that hasn't stopped fans from agonising over what could have been the root cause of everything going to hell. Ever since the TV show brought the characters to the CDC back in 2010 - giving them more knowledge about the nature of the virus than their comic counterparts - fans have wondered whether the writers would ever go there and outright confirm exactly what happened.

Well, after ten years of theories, it seems as though the origin of the walkers might have finally been explained. And strangely enough, it hasn't come on the mainline show.

The Walking Dead spin-off World Beyond recently aired its seventh episode, and gave us the biggest piece of the puzzle yet. This episode flashes back to the very early days of the apocalypse, back when the military was up and running. One military man in particular is shown discussing the cause of the outbreak, implying he heard that the virus actually came from space. He says:

"I heard it came back in a rocket. That it started in space. [...] Somebody breathed it in, it turned their stomachs, and then they got on a plane…"

The Walking Dead: World Beyond has offered us the best look at the big picture of this story so far. It's teased shady organisations and scientists actively searching for a cure for the virus. So, if any of the shows were going to posit a proper theory for the mystery, it's this one.

Of course, this is still presented as a rumour, and it's very much "my dad heard it from a mate who heard it from..." territory, but it does funnily enough support Robert Kirkman's own explanation.

Earlier this year, the comic creator was asked point-blank on twitter what caused the zombie outbreak. His reply was simple: "space spore".

Now, he did later clarify that he was only messing around, but it wouldn't be out of character for the notorious joker to be hiding something this big under the guise of a flippant comment. After all, he did once say he knows the true cause of the outbreak, and that "it's dumb". A virus from outer space certainly fits that bill.

It's unlikely the show will ever say definitively one way or another, but this extra-terrestrial origin now stands as the prevailing theory

So, there you have it. It came from outer space. Is that satisfying? Honestly, after so much time spent wondering about it, no answer will ever really live up to the hype, which is why there's just enough ambiguity here for you to ignore it if you want.