Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead may have seen the exit of Andrew Lincoln’s lead character Rick, but he’ll be back and bigger than ever.
Deadline reports AMC is prepping a series of Rick Grimes movies starring Lincoln, the first of which could go into production as early as next year. It’s being planned as a trilogy and will likely air on AMC.
“We have a lot on the horizon – starting with a new epic featuring one of the greatest leading actors in television history and one of the best people I’ve ever met,” said Walking Dead chief content officer Scott M. Gimple, who’ll write the script.
“These films are going to be big evolutions of what we’ve been doing on the show, with the scope and scale of features. We’re starting with the first part of the continuing story of Rick Grimes, and there is much more on the way, featuring yet-unseen worlds of The Walking Dead and faces from the show’s past, as well as new characters we hope to become favourites, told by TWD veterans and emerging voices. We want to break new ground with different, distinct stories, all part of the same world that’s captured our imagination for nearly a decade of the Dead.”
So what are these movies going to be about? When will they take place? We know, but it means spoiling what happened in the most recent episode.
Rick exited The Walking Dead in heroic fashion, saving his friends by blowing up a bridge before being taken off on a helicopter to parts unknown. The first film “will explore the story of where the Rick is taken and what he faces in a new corner of the zombie apocalypse.” (Read more in our recap here.)
We had heard a few months ago that movies were the future of The Walking Dead and the Rick ones are just the start. According to Gimple, some of the future films will “relate to The Walking Dead as fans know it while others will be standalone stories that break into new creative territory.”
This is obviously massive news for AMC, The Walking Dead and Rick fans who have been anxious all year knowing the star of the show was leaving the show. Now we know that while Rick is gone, he’s not forgotten. His story is only just beginning.
For more on Lincoln’s exit and his thoughts on this huge news, check out his interview with The Hollywood Reporter.