AMC’s previously announced Walking Dead movies, centered on Andrew Lincoln‘s Rick Grimes, could air on both the network and Netflix.
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It was reported by Deadline earlier this week AMC’s in-development Breaking Bad movie will reach both AMC and Netflix, which carries all five seasons of the Vince Gilligan-created series. In that deal, the Aaron Paul-led movie will first premiere on Netflix before AMC.
The streamer also carries the first eight seasons of The Walking Dead, making Netflix a likely second window for the Rick Grimes trilogy.
AMC could also grant first access through its on-demand subscription service AMC Premiere, where the network offers early looks at new episodes of The Walking Dead Season Nine ahead of their Sunday television debuts.
The service, at the cost of $4.99 per month, most recently allowed subscribers to preview the Walking Dead mid-season premiere one week in advance.
Five-season showrunner-turned-Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple confirmed the movies will air on AMC when announcing the ambitious project in November.
“It’s going to show a different situation that Rick is involved in. These are going to be shown on AMC, but they are going to have the scope of feature films,” Gimple said on Talking Dead, promising an “epic story told over years.”
In a statement, Gimple teased the start of a “new epic” following Rick in the aftermath of Lincoln’s final episode of The Walking Dead, where a wounded Rick was rescued by Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) and taken away by helicopter after appearing to die in a bridge explosion.
“These films are going to be big evolutions of what we’ve been doing on the show, with the scope and scale of features,” Gimple said.
“We’re starting with the first part of the continuing story of Rick Grimes, and there is much more on the way, featuring yet-unseen worlds of The Walking Dead and faces from the show’s past, as well as new characters we hope to become favorites, told by TWD veterans and emerging voices. We want to break new ground with different, distinct stories, all part of the same world that’s captured our imagination for nearly a decade of the Dead.”
Other announced projects include additional films, specials, offshoot series, and other digital content that have yet to be defined. Along with Gimple, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman will be heavily involved in the Rick Grimes movie franchise.
Gimple has since teased the movies will feature bigger production values than the mothership television series and the first film will reveal the “vast mythology” behind this mysterious helicopter community.
AMC has yet to mark a date for its first Walking Dead movie, but production is expected to start this year.
Gimple previously told EW the films would start to arrive “sooner than later,” adding “they’re going to be big, so they’re going to take a minute to make.”
The Walking Dead Season Nine airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.