'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' showrunner teases when the spinoff will start converging with the other shows

• Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for the season one finale of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond."
• Insider spoke with showrunner Matt Negrete about the finale and his feelings on "TWD" ending after 11 seasons.
• Negrete said he believes the second season of "World Beyond" may end around the same time as "TWD" in late 2022.
• There will be more of an explanation to a longstanding mystery and "brand new aspects" about the Civic Republic.

"The Walking Dead: World Beyond" ended its first season with most of its group scattered.

Hope has been taken away by the mysterious Civic Republic Military (CRM) in a helicopter, Felix was reunited with his boyfriend Will, and Silas is being taken away to an undisclosed CRM facility.

Insider spoke with showrunner Matt Negrete about the season, whether or not Silas is heading to wherever Rick Grimes has been for the past few years, and when and if all of "TWD" shows will converge by the end of "World Beyond's second, and final, season.

Negrete also told us to expect to learn much more about the CRM next season, some more about the "A and B" mystery, and whether or not we may see the return of Jadis from "The Walking Dead" on the spinoff.

Negrete was in his office when he learned 'The Walking Dead' was ending. He doesn't believe he'll return to work on the final season.

Before working on "World Beyond," "The Walking Dead" was your baby for awhile. You were on there since season four. Do you remember where you were when you learned the flagship show would be ending?

I was in my office and I got a call from AMC, my home office... I was stunned. Having worked on that show for so long, you know, nothing lasts forever obviously and it definitely had a good run. But, yeah, it was just the last thing you expect to get a phone call about. Your head's just in the different show and I guess in your mind, you kind of take for granted that it's going to end someday.

I'm really just focused on this show and season two. My hat's off to everyone that's ever been involved in "The Walking Dead" for doing as many seasons as they did and for it to just be this sort of cultural touchstone that it became. I just couldn't be more proud.

If you're working on season two of "World Beyond" right now, is there a chance we may see you hop back over to "The Walking Dead" before it ends in 2022?

It's a good question. I think that this show's going to be ending around the same time. It's all kind of... we're all sort of figuring out what these schedules are going to be like in this pandemic that we're living through. I think that the overlap, it probably won't allow me to do any more work, even though I'd love to. It was such a big part of my life for so long. I'm still hoping I can see those guys, everybody over there.

Negrete was worried fans could figure out the Huck twist earlier in the season before the reveal

I wasn't sure how I was feeling about the first few episodes of "World Beyond," but then these past few episodes, especially the moment we learned Huck was this undercover agent, the episodes have rolled right into one another. It kind of reminded me of the recent Dante reveal on "The Walking Dead." How long were you guys considering this twist? If I go back now, I don't know if I'll see some hints that maybe told us she was a CRM member.

That's a good question. Having Huck be a mole for the CRM was something that Scott and I had talked about from the very inception of the show. We had talked about [what] this bigger world was, but the thing that really kind of got us excited was taking advantage of this limited-run series and how can we surprise people with these characters.

A lot of times on "Walking Dead," the second they introduce a new character, you do have to ask [whether or not to] trust them because you don't know what their agenda is. It really kind of struck us to have a group of all-new characters and to have one of them have a secret agenda from the beginning just seemed like an amazing opportunity and to be able to lay hints, which I think we did.

I would say, if anyone is curious definitely go back and watch some of these episodes. There's actually something that Huck says in episode four. I was sort of nervous about having her say it, but there's something where she specifically talks about her philosophy and how things aren't always what they seem. I remember thinking, "Oh no, we gave too much away." I haven't spent too much time online, but it seems like a lot of people were surprised about it and some people I think had their suspicions, but the fact that at least it didn't seem obvious, I think [that's] a credit to the writers for being able to pull that off.

Is Hope related to some famous scientist? Probably not.

The finale brought up questions about Hope's identity. Huck said, "You have no idea who you are." Are we going to learn she's related to some famous genius, like Elon Musk? I thought we were going to learn in the finale, but I couldn't tell if the reveal was supposed to be that she's just who she is because of her relationship with her sister.

I wouldn't say that we're necessarily pointing to some lineage. It's really about who you are, meaning, what she is and what she is to them.

Hope is someone who has not always thought very highly of herself. She was willing to sacrifice herself in episode two by going into the blaze to help her friends. She was always kind of crying out for attention back at the university, but she was always very smart at the same time. So that specific reference that Huck says is really a reflection of how the CRM sees Hope in comparison or in contrast to how Hope has seen herself up to this point.

We will get more of an explanation about the longstanding A and B mystery on season 2 of 'World Beyond'

Something else I want to just see if we can clear up from earlier in the season: Did we finally get an answer about what it means to be an A? Or is that still a little unclear? Because it seems like we learned that if you're an A, you wind up a test subject. Angela Kang previously told me that we know you're an A if you get a bite mark, which I spied on most of these walkers in the CRM lab.

Yeah. I would say that all those walkers that we do see in that lab have bites on them. We did see that Dr. Abbott from Portland — who is featured, muzzled with the red beard — his test subject number started with, actually, the letter A. There are some things that we're starting to... we're connecting some dots there for sure. I will tease that there will be more to that explanation that we might be getting into in season two, let's put it like that.

Silas is getting taken to some unexpected location by the CRM

So we saw Silas get carted off by the CRM in the finale. Any chance he's heading to wherever Rick is?

That question's getting you into spoiler territory so I can't answer that specifically, but I will say, that where Silas ends up, some people might find surprising. I'll say it's not a place that even Silas himself suspected. That's my tease for season two.

Negrete says 'the door is open' for communities from 'Fear TWD' and 'TWD' to converge into 'World Beyond'

Looking at next season, at what point do we start tying these shows together? Huck tells Hope that there are other people trying to find out where the CRM is. Who is she referencing there? Maybe some of Ginny's people from "Fear TWD," maybe some others like the Commonwealth on "TWD", or maybe it's people we haven't even seen yet?

You know, I think it could potentially apply to any or all of those. In general, the Civic Republic and their military, they're a big operation as we see. We established in the tag of episode three that there are 200,000 souls listed as living in the civic Republic. I think that any group or organization that has what they have — have the number of people that they have, have things that other people would want — the Civic Republic would want to protect. So, yeah, the door is open for any or all or one or none of those things to converge.

Could we see Jadis/Anne on 'World Beyond' season 2? 'Never say never.'

I always ask the fans what they want to know. One asked, what are the chances we see Jadis (Anne) appear on the second season?

My answer to any sort of crossover question like that is, "Never say never." I will say that the crux of the season we'll be focusing on our core characters. But we're also going to be meeting some new characters as well. The audience will just kind of have to tune in and see what other surprises await.

We will learn more about the Civic Republic next season

So it seems like we're going to shift our attention more to the CRM next season. What can you tease because this is such an interesting thing to do just a two-season show?

Season one was about the journey to get to where they're going and season two really is about getting there and what happens once they get there. We're going to be seeing some aspects of the Civic Republic we've only hinted at [and] some that are brand new aspects of the Civic Republic that we haven't hinted at.

Then there's also this other group that Iris and Felix ran into with Will. We'll be getting to know what that group, who that group is, and what their agenda is, as well. So there's a lot of different worlds that are part of the CRM or tangential to the CRM, that we're going to be exploring and how all of these come together is going to be a big part of what season two is about.

How many horrible things can people do in order to justify the greater good? That's a question that will be imperative in season 2.

I was surprised Huck didn't know the Campus Colony was destroyed. What would she do if she knew? Would she have let Hope go with her mom, Elizabeth, still? And if she does find out about the Campus Colony, is there a chance she could maybe rejoin Felix and the other survivors to help take down the CRM?

Yeah. We did make a point of letting the audience know that Huck didn't know about the Campus Colony being destroyed. Elizabeth intentionally has not told her up to this point. So it sort of begs the question of, "Why?"

Something that the writers and I talked about are looking at past movies that have depicted moles and in history spies have gone into certain groups. This dynamic happens in which the person who was sent to observe a group of people becomes attached to them. It's possible that maybe that's what Elizabeth's fear was. For her own daughter to be basically undercover with this group for — specifically for the Campus Colony — the better part of a year, that's a big deal.

[Elizabeth] probably assumed that attachments did form and that may have caused some conflicting emotions for Huck. Huck is always someone who, as we saw in the flashbacks of episode seven, she was someone who was willing to do very terrible things on behalf of the greater good. But I think everyone has that line they have to draw for themselves, which is — How terrible and how many horrible things can we do? How horrible are these things that we do to still justify that greater good? I think that question is really going to be central to season two.

You can follow along with our ongoing "TWD" coverage here.