Michonne Found Portland’s Survivors – Walking Dead Theory Explained

After going her own way, The Walking Dead’s Michonne (Danai Gurira) may have found the Portland community mentioned in The Walking Dead: World Beyond. For a long time now, Michonne’s whereabouts have been a major mystery. Though her name has been brought up often on the main series, she hasn’t been seen since a 2020 episode.

One season after Rick (Andrew Lincoln) departed The Walking Dead, Michonne followed suit. She made her last appearance in The Walking Dead season 10, episode 13, titled “What We Become”, but it’s been said that her time in the franchise isn’t completely over. It’s commonly assumed that her return will happen in Rick Grimes’ movies. As for what she’s doing, Michonne is off looking for Rick somewhere in the United States. When she left, she didn’t know the details of Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) trading Rick to the CRM, but she was aware at this point that he was somehow still alive. Her offscreen journey in the Walking Dead universe could lead to her discovering the existence of the CRM, their plans, and possibly the location of their secret headquarters.

Michonne is far from the only character on a collision course with the CRM. The Walking Dead: World Beyond recently ended, but its main characters still have more fights ahead of them. The ending of the series revealed that many of the characters that escaped their base in New York are still committed to opposing the CRM and their goals. Several headed off to stop the Portland community from being massacred by the CRM. Looking at reveals made during Michonne’s exit and World Beyond’s final episode, a crossover of some kind may be on the horizon. Here’s why Michonne may have linked up with Portland’s survivors.

The Walking Dead Season 10’s Mysterious Caravan Explained

At the end of “What We Become”, Michonne was headed north to a shipyard in New Jersey, where Rick had supposedly been taken. Before she could get there, she saved two survivors from a zombie attack and joined up with them. As it turned out, Michonne’s two new companions were stragglers from a much larger group. Michonne found out that they were part of a massive caravan marching across the countryside. Hundreds –if not thousands – of people were walking together toward an unknown destination. Perhaps in the interest of finding safety in numbers, she joined the procession. For the time being, not much is known about who these people are, where they’re going, or where they came from. The only clue was the way they were dressed. Many looked like cowboys.

Why Michonne’s Exit Could Be Tied To World Beyond’s Ending

Earlier, there was some speculation going around that Michonne might have found the Pioneers from Fear the Walking Dead, but a much better theory has since emerged. As noted above, Portland is under threat of attack by the CRM. Saving them became the new objective of Iris (Aliyah Royale), Elton (Nicolas Cantu), and the Perimeter group. Since World Beyond took place ten years after the zombie apocalypse began, their efforts to save Portland likely already played out in The Walking Dead’s timeline. If they managed to evacuate in time, it’s entirely possible that they were trekking across the country at the time of Michonne’s Walking Dead exit.

It’s worth noting that the Portland settlement boasted over 87,000 members. With that in mind, Iris’ group succeeding in getting a warning to Portland could easily explain the sheer size of the caravan Michonne found in The Walking Dead season 10. Even just a chunk of that population surviving the CRM’s attack could account for what Michonne saw. Furthermore, Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang did say on Talking Dead that the caravan was somewhere between Virginia (Alexandria’s location) and New Jersey. If the Portland survivors left Oregon and traveled all the way to the northeastern corner of the United States, it may be that they crossed paths. It would have been a long and grueling journey to be sure, but with such massive numbers, it’s hard to imagine much of anything being capable of stopping them. The caravan making it that far isn’t unfeasible. If it did, Michonne may currently be in the company of the people the CRM tried to destroy.

A Portland Connection Could Set Up Michonne’s Return

Michonne joining the Portland survivors could serve as setup for her role in Rick Grimes’ movies. When she left the show, she knew Rick was in a New Jersey shipyard at one point but that was never going to be enough for her to track him down. What Michonne really needs is a way to get intel on the CRM, which she still knows nothing about. It’s for this reason that it would make perfect sense for The Walking Dead franchise to connect Michonne’s new group to the CRM story. If there is a connection, that could create a pathway for her to make an appearance in Rick Grimes’ movies. That could very well be where Portland comes into the picture. If the caravan had previous ties to the CRM and were nearly killed by them, they could give her some much-needed answers about Rick’s captors. Through them, she could develop a proper understanding of the CRM’s methods and operations.

Michonne & World Beyond’s Heroes Can Join Rick Grimes’ Movies (Together)

Michonne could be with Portland, but what about Iris, Elton, and all the others? It’s not clear where they would have gone after getting to Portland. If the Portland survivors really did travel as far as Michonne’s location in “What We Become”, it stands to reason that they would remain together – or at least until they made it to the base where Hope (Alexa Mansour) and the scientists are holed up. If so, that could open the door for a big crossover where Michonne meets World Beyond’s core characters and shares some screen-time with them.

For TheWalking Dead franchise, this could be an important development for two reasons. Since World Beyond is over, its characters have an uncertain future in its universe, but putting them in the movies would allow for their storylines to be continued. Also, going in this direction would give the movies an easy way to bring multiple characters into the story at once. Everyone in the caravan – The Walking Dead: World Beyond’s characters, the Portland survivors, and Michonne – could have good reasons for waging war against the CRM. If they take them on, Rick could be freed from their grasp and the franchise’s biggest villains could finally fall.

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