The Walking Dead: AMC Bosses Nixed Rick Grimes Movies for Limited Series According to Report

The world needs Rick Grimes, but in the wake of yesterday’s blockbuster Comic Con announcement of a Rick & Michonne spinoff, does the world need a Rick Grimes movie trilogy? According to one report, AMC doesn’t think so, with studio brass reportedly opting to tell the final Rick Grimes stories as a limited series rather than finally committing to the long-delayed movies. After the character of Rick, played by Andrew Lincoln, left The Walking Dead, an announcement quickly came that his destiny would be revealed in a series of films that would center on Rick’s journey back to his family. Later, Michonne (Danai Gurira) would follow him out into the wilderness in the hopes of finding him and reuniting.

The six-episode series will run roughly the same length as three feature films, so almost immediately after the announcement dropped, fans started to ask themselves what’s up. While AMC has not yet confirmed it, Variety‘s Justin Kroll, who has covered the show for years, says the movies are effectively dead.

“According to sources, the decision to go the limited series route happened following a regime change at AMC networks with new leadership preferring to wrap up this story on their network rather than in theaters,” Kroll said on Twitter.

There’s no official word as to why AMC opted to go with a miniseries, rather than a trilogy of TV movies, but it may just be timing. After all, a six-episode series can run for consecutive weeks and deliver a huge, short-term bang in the ratings. Movies would likely be spaced out one at a time for months or years.

Until there’s some word from executive producer Scott Gimple, who will serve as showrunner on the miniseries, it’s likely this will all be speculation — but given Kroll’s bona fides and the content in question, it seems likely the movies are dead. Of course, that doesn’t mean AMC couldn’t do a Fathom Events-style screening for the first two episodes and still bring in some money from superfans who want to see Rick and Michonne on the big screen.

According to AMC, “This series presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?”