Warning! Contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 11!
Following his long absence from the show, Rick Grimes will finally return to The Walking Dead in a new spin-off show with Michonne. Andrew Lincoln left TWD during season 9 to spend time with his family, but he briefly returned for The Walking Dead series finale. Originally, there were plans to have a trilogy of Walking Dead movies that focused on Rick Grimes. Andrew Lincoln joined Michonne actress Danai Gurira and Walking Dead executive producer Scott Gimple onstage at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, however, to reveal that Rick's final adventure will be a six-part TV series. With the Rick Grimes movies canceled, AMC will round off their respective arcs with the upcoming Rick and Michonne spinoff.
While the Rick Grimes movies not happening is a bummer, his return to The Walking Dead universe and his upcoming spinoff was set up in the TWD series ending. After two long seasons, Rick finally returns for the final moments of The Walking Dead series finale. As Michonne provides a voiceover explaining that she knows Rick is out there and won't stop searching for him, Rick appears on a river bank, writing a letter. He's then cornered by his original captors in a helicopter, urging him to surrender over a loudspeaker. The scene foreshadows the fact that Rick has probably been on the run since his initial capture, but the details of his absence will be further explored in the miniseries. With the Rick Grimes movies canceled, many were disappointed by the change — but it's better for The Walking Dead overall.
Why Rick & Michonne Were Apart In TWD Finale
Rick Grimes was written out of The Walking Dead in the first half of season 9 when he blew up Alexandria's bridge to prevent a herd of walkers from swarming the town. Initially, Rick was assumed dead, but he was later found downstream by Jadis, who helped Rick Grimes by signaling a mysterious helicopter to fly the two of them away. Daryl and the rest of Rick Grimes' group have learned to live without him, but they have never quite let go of the hope that he might still be out there, given that they couldn't find his body. Another key departure from the flagship Walking Dead show was Michonne, Rick's partner, who left in season 10 after finding a clue that suggested Rick was alive. Rick's story was supposed to conclude with a movie series, but with the Rick Grimes movies not happening, his story has changed to a TV show.
While a Rick and Michonne reunion story has always been the plan, a TV show is a better delivery method for it than a movie. Following Andrew Lincoln's departure from the series in November 2019, The Walking Dead movies were announced but have been stuck in development hell since then, which is usually not a fantastic sign concerning the quality of a film. The choice to make Rick and Michonne's next chapter a TV series has injected fresh life into a project that was losing momentum. Following the announcement that the series will be released in 2023, Walking Dead fans now have something to be legitimately excited about following the end of the main show.
Why Rick & Michonne's Show Is The Right Way To End Their Story
The Walking Dead universe is now so vast that it would be a struggle for the now-scrapped Rick Grimes movies to have paid off every storyline that has been set up. Not only does Michonne have to find him first, but Rick also has plenty of loose ends to tie up back in Alexandria, the most important of which include seeing his children again and his much-anticipated reunion with Norman Reedus' Daryl Dixon. On top of that, The Walking Dead franchise has grown significantly in recent years, and its spinoffs have set up more threads for Rick and Michonne's series to explore. Most notably, Jadis has become one of The Walking Dead: World Beyond's main characters in season 2, but little has been explored about her relationship with Rick since she flew him away from Alexandria.
The demand for new TV series is greater than ever, and although The Walking Dead's viewership numbers are down from its peak seasons, a returning Rick Grimes will undoubtedly spike the figures once more. Other franchises have proven the value of well-produced TV series in terms of both viewership and the ability to tell complex stories. The MCU's TV shows, including Ms. Marvel and WandaVision, could have feasibly been movies, but making them series allowed for greater character and narrative development than would be possible in the more time-restrictive feature film format. With so much to wrap up in The Walking Dead even after the conclusion fo the main show, the announcement of a Rick Grimes and Michonne TV series is a welcome one — it would have been a shame to condense their final story into a film and risk a rushed denouement.
Star Wars Showed The Walking Dead The Power Of Miniseries
Though the Rick Grimes movies not happening has caused some disappointment among viewers, The Walking Dead seems to be taking a page out the Star Wars franchise's book by turning their next story into a miniseries. There was one other Star Wars property that was originally set to be a feature film, only to be turned into a miniseries — Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Ewan McGregor-led TV show was initially pitched as a trilogy, according to screenwriter Stuart Beattie. In 2017, Obi-Wan Kenobi had Stephen Daldry attached to direct the feature film, and Hossien Amini was tasked with penning the script. However, box office returns for Solo at the time were disappointing at best, so Disney decided to change their plans, and turned the movie into a TV show.
The switch proved to be a massive success, and it had the biggest premiere of any series on Disney+ thus far. With the Rick Grimes movies canceled, a Walking Dead miniseries may have seemed like the second-best option. However, Obi-Wan has proved that this model can work in AMC's favor, and there are many upsides to giving audiences a TV show rather than a movie. While The Walking Dead isn't outright copying Star Wars, the decision that Disney made has obviously garnered attention and AMC is undoubtedly taking note.