THE WALKING DEAD: THE ONES WHO LIVE

UNDEAD SUPR EMO SCOTT M GIMPLE EXPLAINS THE LONG JOURNEY TO R EUNITE RICHONNE IN

WORDS: TARA BENNETT

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO those The Walking Dead movies?” That’s been the question swirling around the ether since 2018, when Andrew Lincoln exited the flagship show after eight years and 120 episodes of playing series lead Rick Grimes.

Literally as the screen went black on “What Comes After”, the fifth episode of season nine, AMC sent out a press release announcing the intention to make a series of original films with Lincoln “to continue the story of Rick Grimes, with the first expected to begin production as early as 2019.”

At SDCC 2019, there was a follow-up teaser trailer that just featured a Civic Republic Military (or CRM) helicopter. Then Covid arrived, which put everything on hold and effectively silenced any movie chatter.

Time also rolled on for actress Danai Gurira, who was ready for new challenges in the wake of Black Panther’s success and her playwriting ambitions. So, in The Walking Dead season 10 episode “What We Become”, Michonne left Alexandria to follow up on the physical clues seemingly left by Rick for her to find that imply he’s still alive.

More silence followed until SDCC 2022, when, with much fanfare, The Walking Dead Universe’s chief content officer, Scott M Gimple, Lincoln and Gurira revealed that those movies had gone kaput. Instead, there would be a six-episode spin-off series all about Rick and Michonne. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live would reunite the long-separated married couple and explain where their characters have been all this time.

SHIPPING FORECAST

It was a reasonable enough shift, as precedent had already been set with other OG character mini-seasons, like The Walking Dead: Dead City for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, starring Norman Reedus. The Rick and Michonne series would be showrun by Gimple, with story assists by Lincoln and Gurira, and primarily focus on the thing that captivated both fans and Gimple: the two’s relationship.