In the latest episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City, the undead are the least of Maggie's worries. After a fallout with her son Hershel, she finds herself going one-on-one with a grizzly bear. Naturally, some viewers believe the bear was infected with the zombie virus, but that is not the case.
Throughout the history of The Walking Dead, only humans have been susceptible to the zombie virus. For the bear to be infected would raise a lot of continuity issues; why wouldn't all the dogs, cats, horses, tigers (specifically Shiva) and other animals be infected? This is The Walking Dead, not Resident Evil. The bear that Maggie faces in Dead City is pretty amped up, but bears can get pretty threatening and angry without being zombies. The show was not hinting that animals can now be infected.
Thankfully, Walking Dead boss Scott Gimple was on hand to quell the rumors. "Just a regular bear," he told Entertainment Weekly, adding that the team were concerned that some viewers may see it as a zombified bear. "Thank you for asking that. There was a lot of concern that it might be thought of as a zombie bear."
On that note, Gimple confirmed that, even with the arrival of variant zombies in recent years, animals still cannot be infected. "It has some injuries," Gimple added. "Most likely from zombies. But if a zombie bites a bear, it does not turn into a zombie bear."
The lore of The Walking Dead Universe could quite easily shift to include zombified animals in the coming years. I mean, the series has been introducing variants at every turn, such as climbing walkers, bioluminescent walkers, amped-up walkers, the Walker King, and more. How cool would it have been if the bear was a zombie? Although if that were the case, humanity would go extinct a lot faster!
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 continues Sundays on AMC. There are two more episodes left in this season. And then, later this year, fans will get to watch the third season of Daryl Dixon, as The Walking Dead Universe continues through these spinoff projects.