The Walking Dead Boss on Familiar Faces Showing Up in Rick Grimes Movies
The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple is still “playing around with various [...]
The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple is still "playing around with various aspects" of the planned trilogy of feature films centered on Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes, but the writer-producer isn't ruling out the involvement of familiar faces like Michonne (Danai Gurira) or the long-missing Heath (Corey Hawkins). Gimple previously confirmed Pollyanna McIntosh, who played Jadis-slash-Anne between Seasons 7 and 9 of the television show, will be joining Lincoln in the movie franchise after Anne was last seen flying away with Rick aboard a helicopter that seemingly relocated Rick to Philadelphia. TWD showrunner Angela Kang later suggested Heath could resurface in the movies when she addressed suspicions his abduction was tied to CRM, the same organization responsible for Rick's six-year disappearance.
"I can't even give you a definitive thing because we really are playing around with it a little bit now," Gimple told Entertainment Weekly when asked if Heath or other TV characters could pop up in the movies. "We have a terrific area and direction we're moving in, but we're playing around with various aspects of it."
Asked about the potential involvement of exiting Michonne star Danai Gurira, who ends her eight-season run with the television show in the back half of its tenth season, Gimple said he doesn't "want to get ahead of The Walking Dead."
"I don't want people already looking to what Michonne might or might not be doing next," he added. "She has an amazing story coming up on Walking Dead that informs everything moving forward, but I don't want to get ahead of that. We worked real hard on that."
Other possible players making the leap to the movies include Rick's longtime ally Morgan (Lennie James), last seen shot and left for dead in the Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 finale — Rick was also gravely wounded when he was collected by CRM, who were involved in this past season of the spinoff — and CRM soldier Isabelle (Sydney Lemmon), perhaps the likeliest candidate to cross paths with Rick when the movies explore the vast mythology behind the mysterious organization connecting all three Walking Dead shows.
Audiences should also expect a slew of new characters when the still-untitled movies open up and expand TWD Universe.
"We are going to continue to tell Rick's story, and we are going to discover so much of the world through that story," Gimple told EW. "Rick will be challenged in different ways that, in some ways, everything that he's been through has sort of prepared him for. It's a much larger world than one that he had been operating in, and that was challenging in and of itself. Now things are heightened, and just as we're going to the movies — and it is the movies proper, suitably wide screen — we're going to be filling that screen with a brand new world."
The Walking Dead Season 10 returns with new episodes Feb. 23 on AMC. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.
