Where in the world is Rick Grimes? Actor Andrew Lincoln’s last episode of The Walking Dead aired on November 4, 2018, leaving Rick’s fate up in the air — literally. Season 9 episode “What Comes After” ends with Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) rescuing Rick from the wreckage of an exploded bridge, shuttling him to safety aboard a helicopter marked with the three-circle symbol of the covert Civic Republic Military. Moments later, on live after-show Talking Dead, Walking Dead Universe Chief Content Officer Scott Gimple announced Rick’s return in the Walking Dead feature film — part one of a trilogy spanning an “epic story told over years.”
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That was three years ago.
“This is not a trick. This is the end of Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead. This is not going to be the end of Rick Grimes’ story,” Gimple said at the time. “We’re going to continue telling Rick Grimes’ story in a series of AMC original films. There’s a lot of story to tell.”
The movies, once expected to begin production in 2019, would “show a different corner” of the Walking Dead world and “show a different situation that Rick is involved in.” A brief but cryptic teaser trailer released during San Diego Comic-Con 2019 revealed Rick returns only in theaters, joined by McIntosh’s Jadis on the big screen.
Jadis has since returned on Season 2 of spin-off The Walking Dead: World Beyond, now airing Sundays on AMC, where viewers will learn more about what happened during the six-year time skip before McIntosh and Lincoln reunite in the untitled Walking Dead Movie.
Despite the lack of updates since the official announcement in November 2018, the Rick Grimes movies are “still alive,” according to Walking Dead director and executive producer Greg Nicotero. The franchise veteran and special make-up effects artist told ComicBook over the summer that Gimple and Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who are working together on the script, are “making sure that they get it right.”
“I wish that there were more updates. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes,” Kirkman said during virtual Comic-Con in July, adding: “We don’t want a bad Rick Grimes movie. We want an amazing Rick Grimes movie, so everybody behind the scenes is making sure that when this comes out it was worth the wait and it is actually the special, character-building Rick Grimes journey that everybody wants it to be.”
In 2020, producers confirmed shooting was on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic that shuttered most of the industry last year. According to David Alpert, Skybound Entertainment co-founder and Walking Dead EP, “We have something really exciting, really unique, really different, and can’t wait to get it going. We just have to wait for it to be safe.”
Lincoln, who will produce the movie alongside franchise producer Gale Anne Hurd, expected a potential spring or summer 2021 shooting start that never transpired. In April, Lincoln told SFX Magazine: “We’re very excited about how, at the first available opportunity, we’re going to go into production…I can’t wait to get those cowboy boots.”
AMC Studios and Skybound have not yet set a date for the movie releasing in theaters from Universal Pictures. Here’s how Walking Dead fans are commemorating the third anniversary of “What Comes After”:
