In a blink and you missed it moment, AMC just managed to sneak Beta (Ryan Hurst) into an episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. This also means that this character is the only one to have crossed boundaries and appear in all three Walking Dead series.
For those who were astute enough, the moment occurred during Silas’ (Hal Cumpston) conversation with Dennis Graham (Maximilian Osinski) after Silas had tried to escape.
The pair had a lengthy conversation regarding Silas’ botched escape attempt. Dennis pointed out that it would be near impossible to find his friends on the outside and that perhaps he should stay and make a go of it where he was.
While it seemed an entirely unlikely time for Beta to make an appearance, he was certainly there. Albeit, not in the flesh.
When Silas stood to leave and Dennis suggested he take the bottle of alcohol to clean his wounded hand, there was a record laying next to the bottle.
It was hard to see at first glance but it was an album cover that is familiar to fans of both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.
Beta as he appeared in The Walking Dead
Fans who have tuned in to the other two shows will know that Beta was one of the leaders of the Whisperers group, being second only to Alpha (Samantha Morton).
While the character was deadly at Alpha’s side, he had a very interesting backstory that placed him as a famous country singer known as Half Moon. Because of this, his Live in Concert album has shown up several times across the Walking Dead universe.
So, while he may not have appeared in person in either World Beyond or Fear the Walking Dead, he is still there thanks to his music career.
In fact, one episode of The Walking Dead took a deeper dive into Beta’s backstory and fans got to finally see the album cover properly.
And, according to Comic Book, there have been other subtle mentions of Beta’s pre-zombie apocalypse life.
Most notably, Lucille (Hilarie Burton) wore a concert T-shirt for Half Moon during the “Here’s Negan” episode of The Walking Dead.
In addition to this, Magna (Nadia Hilker) also listened to one of his songs in Season 10.
Beta as he appeared in Fear the Walking Dead
Beta’s album also appeared in AMC’s other spinoff series, Fear the Walking Dead.
Here, it occurs in a scene involving Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades). And, it is also the first time that Beta’s full face appeared anywhere within the franchise. Previously, he had his face covered with a walker mask or the album cover showed on half of his face.
Season 2 of The Walking Dead: World Beyond is currently airing every Sunday night on AMC.