So Rick is gone from The Walking Dead. But the actor is returning to… The Walking Dead.

Well, that’s it.

Rick is gone and The Walking Dead is officially off the comic tracks.

So what’s next for actor Andrew Lincoln? Well… The Walking Dead.

Wut?!

Well, here’s the deal.

The actor is set to return as Rick for three big budget TV movies that will air on AMC.

Content chief Scott M Gimple talked to THR and of Rick’s story he said: “The story of Rick will go on in films.

“Right now, we’re working on three but there’s flexibility in that. … Over the next several years, we’re going to be doing specials, new series are quite a possibility, high-quality digital content, and then some content that defies description at the moment. We’re going to dig into the past and see old characters. We’re going to introduce new characters and new situations.”

Going on, he adds: “Rick Grimes is an amazing character and Andy has done an amazing performance. There were story ideas brewing that, as the years went on, seemed very compatible with continuing to tell the Rick story in another format that would allow him time with his family.”

 

You may recall we reported on the plans to expand The Walking Dead universe a few weeks back (here) and this is where this begins. AMC programming president David Madden said: “We look at this as a very long-term proposition,” adding that the Rick movies will be fully fleshed out, standalone movie that will feel like a full Hollywood-level adventure.

“We’re trying to expand into as many different places as the show fits,” Madden goes on, “we think this is a franchise that could live across formats. We want to do it carefully, be strategic and do it right. There is a multiple-year plan that could include additional series, digital content and specials. We’re looking to broaden this into a universe where the movies that Andy will be in are the highest-profile things that we do.”

The Walking Dead includes the main series, Fear the Walking Dead, digital shorts, including Red Machete, Flight 462 and Passage. Gimple’s vision stretches beyond that and includes introducing content with brand new characters, revisiting old fan-favorite and obscure ones and, maybe, spinning off others in shows that could run anywhere from 16-episode seasons to short-order miniseries.

Gimple goes on: “We don’t want to see people doing the same thing, with the same motivations or people with the same lives; it needs to be differentiated from each other in the types of stories that they’re telling, themes and the tones we’re exploring.

“A variety of locations is absolutely critical to this. Seeing other parts of the world and making sure that we’re not trying to do the same thing that Michonne, Maggie and Carol and everybody have been doing. We want to tell different stories but in different corners of the world. That’s the exciting thing about it: There is so much possibility with that, and so much of this comes from the audience asking questions over these past eight-plus years.”

It seems that there will be stories featuring long-gone characters too, one of which is already in the works… though no details have been revealed.

“We are going to be introducing a new corner of the world in The Walking Dead and it has its own history, its own rules and its own situations going on,” Gimple says.

“And those absolutely will feed other stories in the universe in an ancillary way. There are aspects of the movie that could result in other content but not utterly directly; we’re not looking at it like it’s a backdoor pilot; these are going to feel more like features.”

Tantalisingly, he also says that while the world will definitely be the same, there’s an opportunity to go fresh with much of it: “So somewhere across the world, because of the climate, walkers might look very different. But this is still the same world of The Walking Dead. … There is always the possibility of interconnectivity but we don’t just want to tell those stories.”

So, essentially, the king is dead, long live the King.

Are you glad to see Rick is going to be back or do you wish they’d draw a line under it already? Let us know.

Oh, here’s a deleted scene from Rick’s final episode:

Deleted scene from TWD Rick Grimes’ final episode pic.twitter.com/XiPzqIlKFd

— Walt (@UberKryptonian) November 5, 2018