The Walking Dead has had many spin-offs, but The Ones Who Live is its crowning achievement. The series tells the love story we never saw on the flagship show when our two favorite lovers reunite.
After years apart, Michonne (Danai Gurira) reunites with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) as they find their way back to each other. In the original series, Lincoln portrayed the leader of a community at the end of the world, where he vacillated between pacificism and outright violence. But at the end of the world, he finds love with Michonne, another survivor who has lost as much as he has. Michonne befriends Rick’s son, Carl (Chandler Riggs), and they ultimately become a little family.
Rick’s final act in The Walking Dead is to blow up a bridge full of walkers who threaten his family. While presumed dead, Rick survives, and Michonne finally finds him after devastating loss of limb. Of course, this is a Robert Kirkman universe, and it won’t be so easy to get Rick back to Alexandria. But throughout Michonne’s attempt to get her husband back to their children, The Ones Who Live weaves a touching love story that viewers just don’t want to let go of.
Will fans see Rick and Michonne again in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live?
The Ones Who Live only has 6 episodes, commonplace for some of the modern iterations of The Walking Dead series. Fellow spin-off, Daryl Dixon, seemed likely to only be a miniseries until it was renewed. Can the same be true for Rick and Michonne, who have struggled so much to get back to each other? It seems cruel to give us such a beautiful love story only for them to rip it away. But on that front, the creative head of The Walking Dead, Scott Gimple, told the Los Angeles Times that no official decisions had been made.
“I really do believe that ‘The Walking Dead’ in one form or another can absolutely keep going and going and going,
He did add that: “anything can happen.” Gurira has offered some more promising information. An award-winning playwright, the creative who plays Michonne also penned the emotional and romantic fourth episode of The Ones Who Live. In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast “TV’s Top 5,” Gurira noted that AMC gave them such creative control that there is no clean-cut answer. Not one that she could divulge at this time, in any case. When host Lesley Goldberg inquired if the series could continue after one season, Gurira gave the only answer she could.
“Well, you know I can’t answer that, Lesley,” Gurira said laughingly. “Good try, though.”
It certainly seems that with the main characters all in 3 concurrent spin-offs, it wouldn’t be too hard to do a crossover at the very least. Even though creatives are remaining tight-lipped about the future of the series, it doesn’t seem like they’re slamming the door in our faces. Fans can relive the epic love story on AMC before the season finale of The Ones Who Live airs on March 31, 2024.
