We now know for sure exactly when Andrew Lincoln’s going to leave The Walking Dead in season 9. It’ll come in episode 5, which means we only have two weeks left of Rick Grimes as the protagonist of the hit zombie drama. Despite it having leaked out about Lincoln’s exit long ago – much to the actor’s annoyance – AMC’s still done a good job at keeping the exact nature of Rick’s farewell under wraps.
There are a number of ways he could be written out, too, so fans are going into overdrive trying to work out how it might go down. And it turns out one of the stars of the show was also guilty of this while filming the current season.
While speaking to The Wrap, Norman Reedus revealed that he wasn’t initially supposed to appear in the ominous final shot of season 8. However, once he was inserted into the scene he began theorizing about what it could mean for Daryl Dixon in the following run.
“Maybe an hour before that, they’re, ‘we want to put you in this scene.’ And I was, ‘what are you talking about? I can’t go against Rick. What are you talking about?’ And they were, ‘trust us, it’ll play out later.’ And I was, ‘wait, wait, what?’ So I spent my whole hiatus thinking, ‘oh my god, I’m going to kill Rick, or he’s going to kill me.’”
Well, I guess we can rule out one option about how Rick will go now. Seeing how Reedus can freely talk about his worries, that must mean they were unfounded and Daryl doesn’t end up killing Mr. Grimes. Obviously, this was always an outside chance anyway, as it would be so cruel. But hey, The Walking Dead isn’t known for being kind to its characters.
In fact, we don’t even know if Rick will die at all. The latest word on the matter seems to suggest that he’ll make it out alive. Showrunner Angela Kang recently said that she’s not ruling out a return from Lincoln at a later date. As that would be pretty difficult if his character kicked the bucket, perhaps this means he’ll leave Alexandria by other means?
I guess we’ll just have to keep watching The Walking Dead to find out.
