‘The Walking Dead’ Kept A Piece Of Rick Grimes

The Walking Dead kept an iconic piece of Rick Grimes on the series, beyond his revolver and hat which are both being kept by Judith.

Fans have caught on to the fact that Tara is suddenly carrying a very familiar hatchet in the time since Rick Grimes has left Alexandria. This hatchet has been a huge part of Rick’s story. It was used to cut Jessie’s hand off and free Carl from her grasp. Negan used it to intimidate Rick and nearly forced him to cut Carl’s arm off. It has slain countless walkers and been a part of Rick’s appearance for years.

Now, Tara seems to be carrying that same hatchet.

This would be one of many ways The Walking Dead is honoring Rick in his absence. In addition to the aforementioned props being handed down to not-so-little Judith, Rick Grimes now has a son in Alexandria who he hasn’t met yet by the name of Rick Junior (RJ, for short).

New showrunner Angela Kang has been thorough in trying to pay respects to Rick Grimes with his exit and maintain the comic book vibes the show offered in previous years. “It was a lot of fun, but also it’s just very daunting. Rick’s departure was so huge,” she told EW. “Then episode 6 was almost like piloting a whole new show while still trying to keep the DNA of the show that we’ve been watching for so many years. I know all the actors had such a great time just collaborating on the looks, and the hair. We had a conversations about like, ‘Well, let’s talk about what this character looks like six years in the future?’”

One of the biggest changes was Melissa McBride’s Carol dropping her short-hair and taking on some serious length.

“Danai [Gurira] and Melissa [McBride] had these great ideas on what to do with their hair that we were able to design,” Kang said. “We worked on costumes, using the comic book as references for stuff like Jesus’ look, which we’ll see in these episodes going forward, then also just stuff like was just fresh for the show. That part of the process was definitely a lot of fun. The production design team did such an amazing job bringing to life some of the looks from the comic, while still using some of the stuff that’s specific to the show. We’ve got this windmill that’s a big deal from the comic book that our production designer had the great idea to build it on top of one of the bombed-out houses. That was kind of specific to the show’s mythology.”

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.