Will Rick Grimes Return in The Walking Dead Final Season?

The Walking Dead began with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), but will he be back for the end? Rick emerges from a coma at the onset of the zombie apocalypse in the series premiere, "Days Gone Bye," and leads the group that has survived together for 12 years at the start of Season 11. The Final Season of The Walking Dead takes place more than six years after Rick disappears in the Season 9 episode "What Comes After," where his found family are onlookers to Rick's apparent death when he blows up a bridge halting a walker horde. A Civic Republic Military helicopter flies him away from The Walking Dead, shuttling off towards a planned movie spin-off, but could Rick return in Season 11?

After Lincoln's exit episode in 2018, Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple said on Talking Dead that "What Comes After" is "the end of Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead." Gimple confirmed Rick's story would continue in a movie trilogy revealing "where Rick is taken and what he faces in a new corner of the zombie apocalypse" with Jadis/Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh).

Announced by Gimple as a series of original movies that would air on AMC, a 2019 teaser for the Untitled Walking Dead Movie revealed Rick returns only in theaters in the forthcoming feature film scripted by Gimple and Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. The most recent update on the long-stalled movie is that it is in active development despite missing an expected 2019 and then spring-summer 2021 production start, partly because of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In November 2019, one year after Lincoln exited The Walking Dead to spend more time with his family overseas, showrunner Angela Kang confirmed Rick would not appear in Season 10. Kang told Deadline that "the door is always open" for Rick's return, adding Lincoln "can come back any time." (Gimple has since ruled out Rick showing up in Season 2 of spin-off The Walking Dead: World Beyond, which reveals more about Rick's authoritarian abductors: the CRM.)

Season 10 revealed a tie-in with the movie when Michonne (Danai Gurira), Rick's partner, uncovered evidence Rick survived the explosion at the bridge. Gurira exited the show after eight seasons when Michonne set off to find Rick and bring him home to their children, RJ (Antony Azor) and Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming).

Months later, Lincoln revealed he would "never say never" to a Walking Dead return for the final season of the flagship series.

"The easy answer is I have no idea," the actor told SFX Magazine in April. "I don't think it's written yet, but I would never say never to that because everybody that's still doing the TV show are dear friends, and it's an extraordinary feat that they're still going and making this beautiful and ground-breaking show that still resonates with the world."

Season 11 is now halfway through filming its final 24 episodes and is expected to wrap production in late 2021 or early 2022. Last month, Kang revealed the writers' room has plotted and pitched the so far unwritten series finale, and only a few cast and crew know how the series will end.

When Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick asked Kang this past week if she could answer if Rick returns in Season 11, she said with a laugh: "Nope!" (It should be noted that Kang said she couldn't reveal if Rick returns, not that he won't return.) For now, the survivors will confront the Reapers as they fight the dead and fear the living, not yet knowing that Rick is still alive and somewhere out there in the Walking Dead Universe.

The Walking Dead will air its expanded 24-episode Final Season in three parts before concluding in 2022. A release date for the Walking Dead Movie is TBA.

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Walking Dead: The Final Season Part 1 premieres August 22 on AMC.