The Truth About Elton's 15-Year Prediction On The Walking Dead: World Beyond
The Walking Dead: World Beyond centers on a group of four teens as they journey through the United States, ten years after the start of the zombie apocalypse. While the original Walking Dead series is most often concerned with surviving in the present moment, Hope (Alexa Mansour) and Elton (Nicolas Cantu) of World Beyond consider their bleak future in a scene that's all too relatable for today's teens, as Elton predicts that humans have some 15 years before they go extinct.
So, how realistic is his morbid conjecture? Well, according to The Walking Dead comic book creator Robert Kirkman, there are about 1.6 million humans still alive and a ratio of 5,000 zombies — or rather, Walkers — to every one human. This makes for about eight billion zombies worldwide. None of these numbers are necessarily canon in the TV series universe, but it gives an idea of where the human race is at when Elton makes his prediction.
Over seven billion people have died so far from the apocalypse, but things are only getting harder for the humans to keep surviving. As Reddit user u/criesoftheplanet points out, modern medicine is mostly gone. This means everything from a tooth infection to a pregnancy is more likely to kill someone. And considering the survivors are killing each other as well, it's not looking good for the humans of The Walking Dead universe.
Elton believes they're the last human generation
While talking to Hope, Elton brings up the term "endlings" to describe their little group. Scientifically, an endling is the very last member of its species. Once it dies, the species is extinct. "I'm lucky to know that. To know that I need to make my life count. That's all I can do," Elton says. "Really, that's all any of us can do. We're the Endlings."
User u/criesoftheplanet partially agrees with Elton, commenting: "So unless they get a cure, it is likely people will die faster than they reproduce. 15 years for full extinction is probably [a] very low estimate though." It's impossible for us to fully predict how long a zombie apocalypse would last (although some have tried) because there are many variables at play. The show's apparent villain Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek wiped out supposedly half a percent of the world's population in one episode. With those dubious actions in play, the humans of The Walking Dead may kill themselves faster than the undead would.
This conversation may foreshadow the ending of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, as it implies only one of the four teens will be left alive (an endling is only one individual, after all). Will it be Elton in his bite-proof suit, or perhaps Hope with her angry determination?