‘The Walking Dead’: Did That Happen To Rick In The Comics?

Rick Grimes fate may have been revealed in The Walking Dead‘s latest episode, a sharp deviation from the AMC show’s source material.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9×04 follow. Major spoilers!

With Andrew Lincoln poised for an exit from The Walking Dead, Rick’s way out might just be by death after he was bucked from a horse and impaled on a rebar. Typically, the AMC adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comics follows the source material in the grand scheme of the story. However, Rick’s exit was always going to be completely different.

Rick Grimes is still alive in The Walking Dead comics, surviving with one hand and walking with a cane but alive. In fact, Daryl Dixon has never existed in the comics, which means the entire story between Rick and Daryl (which included an “F-word” on the show for the first time) was entirely unique to television.

With a new showrunner in place in the form of Angela Kang, the series seems to be making an effort to follow its source material in many other ways. For example, many of the characters adopted looks similar to that of their comic book counterparts in Season Nine and the Whisperers will be arriving before the show’s 2018 episodes come to an end.

Over the weekend at Walker Stalker Con in Atlanta, Eugene actor Josh McDermitt expressed his interest in keeping the show somewhat different from the comics while also honoring them. “Here’s the thing with what the show does in terms of the comics, it not always by the book,” McDermitt said. “So, it’s not just like, ‘We’re gonna make it bigger and better.’ … If we’re gonna see anything from the comics between Rosita and Eugene it’s gonna be some of these larger themes that we’re seeing in the comics. I wouldn’t say it’s gonna be XYZ and how it plays out but what are they feeling, what are the emotions from it? … That’s all up to you an how you interpret the comics. I don’t want to say yes or no because that might be a spoiler to you!”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.