You’d think after 10 years and countless episodes that The Walking Dead universe would be on the wane. Not so.
AMC’s zombie flagship is fast approaching the finale of season 9, while sister series Fear The Walking Dead continues to perform above all expectations. And according to the franchise’s chief content officer, Scott Gimple, 2020 is “gonna be bananas” for this undead universe, what with the Rick Grimes movie trilogy coming down the pipeline.
While appearing on Sunday’s episode of Talking Dead (h/t ComicBook.com), Gimple noted that Fear‘s next installment will contain some connective tissue with the wider Walking Dead franchise, while it won’t be too much longer before we know the whereabouts (and fate) of a certain Rick Grimes.
We’re working on a number of things right now, they’re getting very close. We’re gonna have a steady flow of announcements through the rest of the year, and then 2020 is gonna be bananas. There’s gonna be some pre-announcements made, we’re gonna have some announcements after that … but what I will say is Fear the Walking Dead is coming up in June, and there is a story in the first half of the season that has to do with one of these greater stories of the universe that will bring in some of the things that all of you guys have seen before, and it will expand it out just a little bit more, and then we’ll have an announcement.
Is it possible that the two projects are interlinked? Will Fear the Walking Dead season 5 allude to the whereabouts of Rick Grimes? Who knows, but it’s no secret that AMC’s biggest characters have a habit of migrating from one series to another – just look at Morgan’s journey from The Walking Dead to its companion show.
But with a TV movie on the cards, it’s looking increasingly likely that Rick Grimes will be the catalyst that helps expand The Walking Dead universe in new directions, rather than retreading old ground. Here’s what series creator Robert Kirkman had to share about the forthcoming announcements:
There’s just so much cooking behind the scenes with TWD now that Scott Gimple has stepped into his overseer role on the TV side of things. Stay tuned for all kinds of news as we get closer to the launch of Season 5 of Fear The Walking Dead, and we get deeper into development on this Rick Grimes TV movie. There’s some great stuff coming!
Strap in, folks, because Sunday’s season finale of The Walking Dead is just the beginning. Entitled “The Storm,” the next episode is all about the fallout from [SPOILERS] death…
