Well, that was unexpected. Following his grave injury in the prior episode, The Walking Dead fans fully expected Rick Grimes to perish in last night’s outing. However, he ended up surviving when Anne transported him away in a helicopter. While we’ve definitely seen the last of him in the TV show, Andrew Lincoln will indeed be returning in a trilogy of movies which will follow what happened next to the former deputy sheriff.
While we don’t know too much about these films, set to air on AMC when they’re ready, we can say that they’re coming sooner rather than later. Entertainment Weekly spoke to The Walking Dead‘s Chief Content Officer (and former showrunner) Scott M. Gimple and he revealed that he’s busy working on the script for the first one. With the deadline drawing near, he expects it’ll go before cameras in the not-too-distant future.
“I am extremely hard at work on the first one right now, and most likely filming next year, though I’m freaking out about deadlines right now, so I’m not going to tell you exactly when because it will only make me pass out. But it really is going to be sooner than later. On the flip side, these are not going to be made on television schedules.”
We can safely say that the first TWD movie will head into production in 2019, then. It’s difficult to pinpoint when it’ll be on our screens, though, as Gimple says that it’ll have the shooting schedule of a cinematic product and will likely take some time to reach TV. However, we imagine AMC won’t want to wait too long before debuting their potentially lucrative new idea and our money’s on it landing next year.
Though the purpose of the movies is to explore fresh realms of the TWD universe, it’s possible that at least two familiar faces could appear alongside Lincoln – namely, Norman Reedus’ Daryl and Danai Gurira’s Michonne. That remains unconfirmed for now, but we know that AMC’s toying with the idea and as soon as we hear anything more on these Walking Dead movies, we’ll be sure to let you know.
