The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln "Hopeful" Rick and Michonne Survive The Ones Who Live

It's been more than five years since we saw Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) together on The Walking Dead — and the wait for the Richonne reunion is almost over. After reprising their roles as the long-lost lovers for a coda sequence that ended the 2022 series finale of The Walking Dead — a separated Rick and Michonne were in different places and different times — the pair reunite for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Lincoln and Gurira, who serve as executive producers, co-created the new six-episode series with showrunner Scott M. Gimple and co-wrote the story for the Gimple-penned series premiere (Feb. 25 on AMC and AMC+).

"We wrote it, so we knew what we wanted," Lincoln told ComicBook in an exclusive interview. "We've been working for a couple of years, meeting in hotel rooms around the world and sitting down in conference rooms in hotels, spitballing these ideas. And we said, 'What is the most insane reunion we can imagine?' We landed on this, and the structure is quite unique with the timeframes that we've got these two people that have left the show in different timeframes. We needed to work that out, but also, we just thought it would be the most thrilling, insane, emotional reunion."

Originally planned as a Walking Dead movie trilogy, the series reveals what happened to Rick after his fateful helicopter flight with Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) on season 9 of The Walking Dead. Meanwhile, Michonne searches for Rick, who was whisked away aboard a helicopter by the Civic Republic Military: an oppressive military force headed by Major Generale Beale (Terry O'Quinn).

As for how Rick and Michonne's love story factors into their years-long attempts to reunite, Lincoln said, "That's the story."

"Danai was the one that was beating the drum largely on this, as well, and it is a love story. It's an epic love story. Every frame should inform their love — or deny their love," Lincoln said. "Essentially, that was it. That was the story."

That love story not only connects Rick and Michonne to each other, but to their children: Judith and Rick "RJ" Grimes Jr. (Michonne and Rick's son was the result of a Richonne love scene in season 9, but Rick was presumed dead just before conception.) Rick and Michonne's mission: make their way back to each other and their loved ones back home. Alive.

Lincoln's hope is that "Rick, maybe, and Michonne make it at the end of this story alive, hopefully." After all, the Grimes are the ones who live.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres Sunday, Feb. 25 on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow on Facebook for more TWD Universe coverage.