'The Walking Dead' Creator Addresses If Rick Grimes' Death Is Being Set Up

The Walking Dead's flash forward tease of a red-eyed and bloodied Rick Grimes isn't setting up a permanent exit for leading man Andrew Lincoln, creator and producer Robert Kirkman told The Hollywood Reporter.

"I don't expect that," Kirkman said.

"That's not an intention there. I've said from the very beginning that no one is safe. I do strongly feel like the show could survive without a Rick Grimes. There's certainly a lot of story to tell without that central character. I've talked a lot about how Rick Grimes will definitely die in the comic book series at some point before the series' conclusion, just because I want to make sure everyone knows that no one is safe. But I don't think you should read too much into that."

The scene in question — glimpsed most recently in the mid-season premiere — sees Rick leaned against a tree and apparently bleeding from wounds to his hand and mid-section.

Lincoln, who told THR it "doesn't look good for Rick," said he was "very worried" upon reading the final scene of "Honor," where a bloodied Rick murmurs about mercy and wraith. "Especially when we did the makeup test and I said, 'He looks like he's lost quite a bit of blood. Do we want him to be this white?! Can we make him look like he's got a pint of blood in his body?!'"

A tight-lipped Lincoln said the back half of season 8 sets Rick, Michonne and their family of survivors on "an emotional trajectory" following the loss of Rick's teenage son, Carl, who succumbed to a fever brought on by an incurable walker bite.

A still-able-to Carl shot himself within the scorched walls of the Alexandria church, resulting in a Rick Grimes that has now lost everything.

"I think he will come back and he will be willing to lose every part of himself to wreak vengeance on this," Lincoln warned in the Carl's Farewell featurette.

Asked about what he calls red-eyed Rick, The Walking Dead season 8 showrunner Scott M. Gimple told Entertainment Weekly "answers are coming."

The flash forwards, tied to Carl's visions of an idyllic future, will continue to play out as The Walking Dead barrels towards its season finale.

"This stuff was used to embody the things that we're playing with in the order that they're playing out," Gimple explained. "Those visions very much have to do with the young man that we see interact with Siddiq initially. And what he wants. We see those visions play out very much as the Siddiq story plays out."

Speaking of the battered and crippled Rick Grimes of his ongoing comic book, Kirkman has been very open about Rick's eventual death in the books: "I've said before, Rick does not survive to the end," Kirkman said during an appearance at San Diego Comic Con 2017.

"It was years ago so you guys probably forgot, but I foresee there being more story after his eventual demise. I think about two or three years ago, I had a pretty good idea for a definitive ending. I have known that since then and been working towards that, so I know exactly where I'm going and what's gonna happen when I get there."

All The Walking Dead cast members — save for Lauren Cohan — have freshly re-signed for season 9, expected to debut on AMC this October.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.