Fans of The Walking Dead have been eager to see the return of Rick Grimes to the franchise, and many were hopeful that actor Andrew Lincoln would even show up in the new spinoff series The Walking Dead: World Beyond, especially due to its connection to the CRM group. For those who need a refresher, Lincoln’s last episode as Rick showed him being abducted by a helicopter brandishing the CRM logo, which plays prominently in World Beyond. This has led to much speculation about the possibility of Lincoln appearing in the spinoff, possibly setting up Rick’s massive return in the upcoming The Walking Dead movies. However, The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple is ready to set a proper expectation for fans — and they should not expect to see Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
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Gimple caught up with ComicBook.com for an exclusive interview, diving into the massive zombie year AMC had with three different shows airing which were all set in the franchise’s canon. Following the Season 1 finale of World Beyond, the characters are on a collision course with the CRM but their journey to New York won’t come with any Rick encounter.
“You know what? I’m very happy to say… I’m not happy to say the answer. I’m happy to be definitive with people. It is not,” Gimple said when asked if World Beyond‘s final destination was Rick Grimes. “That’s one, I don’t know if people are being cagey about that. But I feel that one’s important not to be cagey about. I think people could watch this show and learn a lot about the mythology that Rick Grimes is caught up in. And they might even see places where Rick Grimes has been. But yeah, he’s not swinging around the corner. And I don’t even know if I’m making people upset saying that, but I just don’t like people watching it, sort of expecting Rick.” You can read our full interview with Gimple here!
Still, those dedicated fans hoping to get some intel about what Rick has been experiencing and where he flew off to will still obtain some rewarding insights from World Beyond as the show moves forward and have already through its first season. “People will learn a lot about the world that Rick is entangled in,” Gimple says. “So I think there is a great benefit to that.”
Although Rick Grimes won’t be showing up in World Beyond, the spinoff’s showrunner Matt Negrete is not ruling out appearances from otherr familiar faces. “The thing I’ve been saying about that is never say never. Obviously, I don’t want to spoil anything, but the thing I’ll say is that it really is going to be an expansion of the world,” Negrete says. We’re going to be seeing a lot more of a CRM, parts of the CRM you’ve never even hinted at. We’ll get a glimpse, or probably actually more than a glimpse, into how they operate, what their modus operandi is.” You can read our full interview with Negrete here!
“We’re going to be spending some time at the facility where the girls’ father has been and we’re going to be more immersed in that world,” Negretee promises. “We just hinted at it and teased it a bit in season 1, but season 2 is really stepping off the diving board and diving into it full hog, so to speak. There’s definitely a lot of cool things that we’re going to be exploring that’s all related to the CRM and the larger universe.”
The Walking Dead: World Beyond will go into production for its second and final season in early 2021. Fear the Walking Dead will return for the back half of its sixth season following The Walking Dead Season 10C, which begins airing its 6 new episodes in February.
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