No, The Walking Dead creator didn’t reveal the origins of the zombie outbreak

A while back, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman “revealed” the source of the zombie outbreak that has been plaguing the characters in his comic series, and on AMC’s TV adaptation, for years. In a now-deleted tweet from January, he said it was a “space spore.”

Now, that didn’t sound terribly serious, but some fans believed it. Now, Kirkman is confirming that explanation was “a joke” and has no merit.

“First, the mentioned tweet is months old and it’s been deleted! Second, it was a joke! I would never reveal something like this in a tweet!” And there you go.

Fans have been theorizing what about the origins of the Walking Dead‘s zombie apocalypse since the comics first hit shelves way back in 2003. Sadly, we still don’t have any answers, and now that the comics have come to an end it doesn’t look like we ever will. We’ve had some interesting theories bubble over the years, ranging from polluted water all the way to the extraterrestrial.

When Kirkman was promoting his sci-fi comic Oblivion Song on Tumblr in 2018, Kirkman revealed that he does in fact know the origin of the outbreak, but explained that it is “a crazy sci-fi thing that would make the story all that much weirder.” This just makes me even more curious.

“Maybe years after it’s all over I’ll just casually mention it in an interview,” he said at the time. “That seems like a very J.K. Rowling thing to do.”

"It couldn’t be less important to the story and the lives of these characters. It would be completely out of place in the story. Honestly if a scientist from Washington came to the character and told them what happened the characters would just shrug and say “Oh… okay…” it wouldn’t change their lives at all… and… I’ve said too much."

I, for one, am quite pleased with this outcome. I never really thought that “Space Spore” was a good enough explanation for the zombie outbreak. It would be too similar to the theory surrounding the origins of George A. Romero’s The Night of the Living Dead.

I don’t think we’ll ever really find out what caused The Walking Dead outbreak; Kirman just loves teasing his fans. The Walking Dead is more a story about people, and how humanity would cope when the world collapses. The zombies have more often than not been in the background.

Perhaps the TV show will give us more hints when it returns for the finale of season 10, later this year!

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