Season 9 of The Walking Dead saw the end of an era when Andrew Lincoln bowed out as star of the zombie apocalypse series. Fortunately for fans, his exit from the show didn't mean the end of Rick Grimes, as he'll star in movies set in the Walking Dead universe. A big question has been where viewers will be able to see these movies, and now Johnny O'Dell of The Walking Dead Fan Mailbag dropped some info about what to expect:
There are a lot of details that still have to be sorted out for the Rick Grimes movies, but for now the plan is to air the films on AMC.
There you have it! Although The Walking Dead Fan Mailbag couldn't 100% confirm the details at this early point, the goal is for the movies to debut on AMC. In case you were concerned that you would need to head to a movie theater and shell out the price of a ticket to see what happened to Rick after his big Season 9 cliffhanger, you can rest easy, even if the movies probably aren't coming for a while.
When rumors of Andrew Lincoln's impending departure were confirmed over the summer, many fans (including yours truly) believed that the only way The Walking Dead could write out Lincoln and have it make sense would be to kill Rick off. Instead, The Walking Dead kept Rick alive, although not without having him flung off a horse, impaled on rebar, and sent on a mad journey to try and escape a herd. He ultimately lured the herd to the valuable bridge and blew it up... while still on it.
Understandably, his pals assumed that he was dead after sacrificing himself to prevent the herd from advancing on the settlements, even with the absence of a corpse to confirm the death. Unbeknownst to them, he had somehow survived the explosion, was recovered by Anne, and taken by her onto the mysterious helicopter for an uncertain fate.
Rick on the helicopter being taken to parts unknown almost certainly means that the Rick movies won't feature the other key Walking Dead players interacting with him in the present and outside of dreams/hallucinations, although Anne is quite likely to appear. Admittedly, she's probably not high on many fans' lists of favorite characters, but seeing at least one familiar face with Rick while his friends and family believe him dead could be a relief.
The Walking Dead movies will reportedly go into production in 2019, and we may be waiting even beyond to see the first Rick-centric movie. Andrew Lincoln will be back on the Walking Dead set for Season 10, but not in front of the camera. AMC plans to keep the Walking Dead franchise going for a long time still, despite ratings struggles in Season 9.
The Walking Dead will return to the airwaves for the second half of Season 9 on Sunday, February 10 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC for a zombie apocalypse fix while we wait for those Rick Grimes movies. For some non-zombie options, take a look at our 2019 midseason premiere schedule.
