The Walking Dead: Rick Grimes Movies Update, Ties to New Series

Since November 4, 2018, fans of The Walking Dead have been wondering the same thing: “Where is Rick Grimes?” The main character from the AMC zombie drama was severely injured and flown away from his home and family in a mysterious helicopter. Andrew Lincoln has since signed on for a film which will continue Rick’s story but since the movies were formally announced, the creatives behind-the-scenes have remained quiet about what we can expect when we visit The Walking Dead universe on the big screen. “Can’t tell you where Rick went,” chief content officer Scott Gimple told ComicBook.com at the premiere for The Walking Dead‘s tenth season, but he did offer up some new insight.

“I hate giving this answer because it drives people nuts, but we’re close to telling more soon,” Gimple started. “We’ve been working really, really hard.” How soon is soon? Well, no one is ready to get definitive, but New York Comic Con is a possibility as the AMC show is slated for a Saturday morning showcase along with its upcoming third series.

The series creator Robert Kirkman is working closely with Gimple on the film which may go into production before the year’s end. “Mr. Kirkman is very involved in this and it’s been really fun working with him,” Gimple added. “We work on the shows and stuff, but working on this, just me and him in a room, has been an incredible joy in a really weird perfect way to be working on this tenth year.”

As far as details of the film’s narrative go, the teaser trailer from San Diego Comic-Con had a few clues in it which should prompt some digging, such as Philadelphia being the skyline behind The Walking Dead‘s logo. “That was definitely done on purpose to see if anybody noticed,” Kirkman said. “There’s a lot of other little tidbits in that teaser, that if you’re real eagle-eyed you can, there’s maybe two or three other things that will reveal certain aspects of what’s coming up.”

Fortunately, Gimple was ready to reveal a little bit more than that. “I will say that as Rick took us into the zombie apocalypse, and was our avatar in entering this world, he is going to be our avatar in seeing a much bigger world with a lot of things that have been going on behind-the-scenes, out of our characters comprehension, and so, we’re going to discover a whole lot through him, and as there is a little connection to the new show, so people will see some things about the new show and go, ‘Wait a minute. What’s up there?’ So, get ready.”

The new show, as mentioned earlier, will offer up its first looks and major details at New York Comic Con in early October.

As the universe continues to expand with new titles diving into different regions of the zombie apocalypse, Gimple’s work as chief content officer overseeing the brand as a whole changes. “It’s daunting, but I don’t know, you draw inspiration from each group, from each crew, from each cast, from each showrunner,” Gimple said. “You see opportunities to tie things between the shows and within the universe. You also are like, ‘Whoa, look out, they’re doing this on the other show, so you might want to back off of that.’ You’re also looking for differentiation, and telling really different stories, and the shows take different types of chances, and I think it allows for a varied universe. I think that if somebody watches the other Walking Dead shows and expect it to be exactly like The Walking Dead, that’s not going to happen. The Walking Dead is The Walking Dead. They’re the anchor and the other shows provide different things, different stories, different perspectives.”

The Walking Dead returns for its tenth season on October 6. The Rick Grimes movies do not yet have a release date.