SDCC revealed that The Walking Dead’s planned Rick Grimes movies are now a TV series – and storytelling-wise, that’s an upgrade for the AMC franchise.
The Walking Dead might be ending, but its main characters live on. During its last panel at San Diego Comic-Con (at least for the main show), Walking Dead veterans Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira made a surprise appearance to announce that the anticipated Rick Grimes movies are no longer happening. Instead, a spinoff television series will be arriving in 2023 — and it’s the right call.
Lincoln departed The Walking Dead during Season 9, but was expected to return in what have been affectionately known as the “Rick Grimes movies.” Three Rick-centric films were announced through Universal Pictures and a short teaser was released to heighten the anticipation. In nearly four years and after countless “Where’s Rick Grimes?” questions, the movies made no progress and there were no updates from AMC. But to top off The Walking Dead‘s endless amount of spinoff concoctions, Rick and fan-favorite Michonne will return in a TV series.
Upon the initial announcement, the Rick and Michonne spinoff was believed to be a limited series with six episodes, embracing Marvel’s television series format. But Entertainment Weekly reported that is just a jumping off point, in the hope that it will be the start of a multi-season series. Whether or not it will go beyond six episodes (which it most certainly will unless the actors say differently), a TV series is the best step forward for Rick and Michonne, the latter of whom departed the main series in Season 10.
Television is The Walking Dead‘s forte — excluding the phenomenal Telltale video games and comics — while film is a whole other beast to conquer. Some stories work for film but fail to capture that same essence in television, like many Marvel Disney+ shows. The creatives behind The Walking Dead are avoiding Marvel’s mistake by sticking to what they know. Rick and Michonne are television characters, through and through. Their stories are too large and time-consuming to be told on the big screen, which would feel like a rushed attempt to close out their story.
Additionally, the change in medium honors the fans in a satisfying and appreciative manner. The Walking Dead cast and crew take pride in their fan base, proclaiming them as a part of their “TWD Family.” Not many shows make it to 11 seasons with multiple spinoffs, but The Walking Dead has because its fans are in love with the characters and long-running stories that can only be told on television. Sunday nights during The Walking Dead season are an experience that is cherished by the fans. A one-time watch in theaters is a disservice to the people who appreciate the hype of waiting every week for a new episode to air.
The Walking Dead might be milking everything it has and ruining its own suspense with all these spinoffs, but Rick and Michonne deserve a proper ending to their stories. Rick’s fake death and Michonne’s ominous departure from her children left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth. It was clear their stories weren’t over yet. If all fans got was a trilogy of movies to tell the rest, it would’ve been accepted but not cheered for. Rick and Michonne’s stories can’t be condensed into a few hours — they need to be told in a longer and slower-paced fashion that only television can provide.
The untitled Rick and Michonne Walking Dead series will air on AMC and AMC+ in 2023.