‘The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln Addresses if He Will Ever Return to the TV Show

Andrew Lincoln finally made his exit from The Walking Dead on Sunday night but, as we learned after the episode, the world has yet to see the last of Rick Grimes. Franchise producer Scott Gimple announced on Talking Dead that Lincoln would reprise his popular role in a trilogy of TV movies on AMC.

While that certainly means that we get to see how the rest of Rick’s story plays out, don’t expect the good Sheriff Grimes to return to the main Walking Dead series any time soon. During an interview with The New York Times, Lincoln was asked about keeping the secret of the continuation films, before saying they would be his final portrayal of the character.

“It was a compromise because I didn’t want to be disingenuous to fans, but then of course, I didn’t want to give away the story,” Lincoln said in regards to the secret of the movies. “But yes, I’m very relieved that I can talk about it now.”

As Lincoln went on, he noted that the goal wasn’t to trick the fans, but to give them a different kind of story than they were expecting. This is why everything was kept a secret.

“It was a concern that we start saying one thing and people are anticipating a death, and we don’t give them that,” he said. “You can’t please all people all of the time. That’s why I try to stay out of reading about things like that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning.”

Lincoln continued by saying, “I can categorically say that I will not be returning to the TV show.”

In addition to Lincoln’s confirmation, Gimple also said that Rick was done on the show, and would only be featured in the films from here on out.

“It is really important for the audience to know that we are going to be continuing to tell the story of Rick Grimes in these AMC Studios original films. We don’t want this thing to be like, ‘Oh, well, he’ll be back on the show any moment now,’” Gimple told EW.

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.