The Walking Dead Franchise: The Recurring Villain Formula

Introduction

With the new baddies introduced in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead franchise has now used the same villain formula three times. The Walking Dead shows all take place in a zombie-infested post-apocalyptic setting where the message is pretty straightforward: the real monsters aren’t the ravenous, bloodthirsty hordes of the undead; the real monsters are other human beings whose humanity has been chipped away in a lawless world.

CRM agents with a helicopter in The Walking Dead

This is a poignant message – and a common one in the zombie genre – but the problem with an expansive, interconnected zombie franchise like The Walking Dead is that there’s only so many ways to convey that message before getting repetitive. The latest Walking Dead spin-off, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, has been praised for Norman Reedus’ typically fantastic performance and the show’s refreshing French setting, although it’s been criticized for its similarities with The Last of Us – particularly in its Lone Wolf and Cub storyline. But The Last of Us isn’t the only series that Daryl Dixon has copied; it’s also copied The Walking Dead itself (two times over) with the villainous Genet and her group, the Cause.

Genet looking serious in The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has introduced a third villainous group in this mold: the Cause. The Cause, also known as the Power of the Living (or “Pouvoir Du Vivant” in French), is a paramilitary group led by the sinister Genet. Its soldiers are known as Guerriers (or “Warriors” in English) and, much like the CRM and PADRE, they impose their authority on fellow survivors. The CRM, PADRE, and the Cause are all essentially the same organization. They’re all military groups, they’re all really powerful and widespread, they’re all experimenting on zombies, and they’re all abducting people. Even some of their uniforms are similar.

Madame Genet as the villain in The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon

The Expansion Problem

The recurring villain trope in The Walking Dead franchise highlights the problem with expanding the series into an endless string of spin-offs. Even before The Walking Dead expanded into spin-offs, the flagship show settled into a formula of moving from one settlement with corrupt leadership to another settlement with corrupt leadership. These corrupt leaders were all basically the same: evil overlords whose power had gone to their heads. The writers have strived to keep things fresh with individual ideas like the bizarre zombie orchestra from Daryl Dixon. But the larger story arcs like the threat of the CRM, the threat of PADRE, and now the threat of Genet’s group keep recycling the same tropes and plot points. These shows need to keep shaking things up; audiences will eventually get bored of watching their heroes defeat essentially the same villain over and over again. It’s time to come up with a new kind of bad guy.

Genet standing in the shadows in The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon

The Solution

There is an easy fix for The Walking Dead franchise’s copycat villain problem. The shows can simply reveal that all these groups are connected. The CRM, PADRE, and the Cause could all be working under the same leadership. The Cause could be the French arm of PADRE, or PADRE could be a branch of the CRM. Maybe PADRE’s island is a remote base for the CRM. If all these groups are separate but essentially the same, then The Walking Dead plays like a tired, repetitive franchise. But if they’re all connected, then they have a solid reason to share the same methods and agendas.

The PADRE island in Fear the Walking Dead