The Walking Dead: AMC announces three movies featuring Rick Grimes
By Shawn Lealos
AMC just dropped a bombshell that no one saw coming concerning The Walking Dead movies with Rick Grimes.
Everyone knew that Rick Grimes was being written out of The Walking Dead and that it was because Andrew Lincoln was quitting the series.
However, both sides hid a very important bit of Walking Dead news.
Everyone thought Rick was going to die until the spoilers this week revealed that he was saved at the end. Then, on Talking Dead it was revealed that the entire plan was to remove Rick Grimes from the current timeline and then create Walking Dead movies based on his character.
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Executive producer Scott Gimple said that Rick’s story will continue in the Walking Dead movies. Gimple said there will be three possible movies, but there is some flexibility in that. Gimple said this is part of expanding the universe, which also includes a new series, some specials and possible digital content.
Gimple then said that he and Andrew Lincoln had been planning this since season 4. Since they both have young families, Lincoln knew he wanted to be with them more so they have been setting this up for years.
Andrew Lincoln said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he was going to die in season 8 but the plans started to evolve. Lincoln said he loves Rick Grimes — the character — and they found a way to expand his story without killing him off.
The Walking Dead movies will have Lincoln on set for two months at a time whereas he was there for nine months every year when shooting a season of the show. This is perfect for his home life.
The three movies will air on AMC and possibly a second party since they want someone else to help share the costs of the production — possibly someone like Netflix or Hulu.
The story is where this is puzzling.
The final scene this week of The Walking Dead showed Judith Grimes as one of the new heroes of the series and it jumped ahead six years. if Andrew Lincoln is not going to be on the TV show anymore, how will the movies work?
One mode of thinking is that The Walking Dead movies will fill in the gaps of those six years. Then, we can see where Rick ends up by the time the show restarts. Another mode is that he is taken away and does not return — but that makes no sense as he would not leave his daughter, even if under the protection of Michonne and Daryl.
Some people are wondering about the quality of the movies as too many fans left the show due to the pacing issues under former showrunner Scott Gimple. While he is not the showrunner anymore, he is running the entire franchise now — including the movies.
However, while many fans have left the show, it is still in the top five shows on television in the coveted 18-49 demo, bringing in 9.4 million viewers a week. That means that, while people complain and a lot have stopped watching, The Walking Dead is still a very successful television series.
When it comes to other programs, Gimple has visions of revisiting old characters and introducing new ones in limited run series, anywhere from 16 episodes to short-order miniseries. Gimple said that his main goal is to tell different stories and not have more shows with people doing the same things the characters on the original The Walking Dead already did.
AMC programming president David Madden told THR in an interview that the movies about Rick Grimes will be the highest-profile parts of The Walking Dead franchise over the next few years.
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With that said, Gimple also said that The Walking Dead — the main series — would remain the most important to keep healthy. While Rick Grimes is leaving, the core cast on the show will remain in place, with Daryl now leading the way.
What are your thoughts about AMC saving the life of Rick Grimes and extending it with three new Walking Dead movies? Are you excited to see where The Walking Dead can go from here? Let us know in the comments below.