Forget Rick Grimes’ Walking Dead Movies, Just Give Him A Show Again

At this point, fans have been scratching their heads for years about what exactly is going on with The Walking Dead’s Rick Grimes movies. We keep hearing that they’re still coming, but COVID delays and some false starts and stops have left the concept in limbo, and we still have zero idea when they might be coming.

The longer this goes on, the more I have to say that the conclusion to this seems obvious. Scrap the movie concept entirely, and simply just give Rick Grimes his own Walking Dead series to lead again. Hear me out:

I have never really understood why AMC has been obsessed with a theatrical release of Walking Dead movies. The only thing I keep hearing again and again is that this would allow them more of a “blockbuster” budget, and yet I mean, what is a movie other than 2.5 Walking Dead episodes strung together, really? And presumably, that’s not enough to wrap up the storyline, so then we wait, how long, 2-3 more years for them to release a full trilogy of films?

To me, this seems pointless, and less relevant in an age when television shows are dominating pop culture much more than movies (non-superhero movies, at least) and COVID has decimated the theatrical landscape that seems like it will take eons to fully recover, if it ever does.

Here’s what I would do with Rick Grimes going forward if I was AMC, in conjunction with its ongoing show plans.

• Have The Walking Dead end with season 11 at the conclusion of the comic source material as planned. Don’t bring Rick back here, as that would just overshadow the existing cast. Plus he dies in the comics there, and we don’t want that. Finish it without him. Maybe just a tease of his return, but that’s it.
• Have Fear the Walking Dead end after next season. I really have zero idea how it’s been on this long already. World Beyond has already ended, but it set-up a lot of good developments for Rick’s potential adventures with the CRM.

That would leave AMC with three active Walking Dead Shows:

• The Adventures of Daryl and Carol – It’s already confirmed these two are setting off on their own after the events of season 11. This can still happen, and it seems like it will be a “travel” focused series.
• Tales of the Walking Dead – This is the anthology series full of one-off episodes and flashbacks to old characters.
• The Rick Grimes Show – This would be a new series starring Rick Grimes and his adventures within the CRM, the main villainous force of the overall Walking Dead universe. Ideas for this series would include reuniting with Michonne, as she left the main show to go find him, and then Rick dealing with a new plague of Fast Zombies that were introduced by the end of World Beyond. Again, I see nothing wrong with airing say, ten episodes of a Rick Grimes show a year, rather than this endlessly delayed series of blockbuster movies they have planned.

Andrew Lincoln originally left the show to spend more time with his family in the UK. But he jokes(?) all the time about he wishes he hadn’t left, and he talks about how his kids miss Georgia. It really does not seem like it would be that hard to get him to return for something like this. He’s not attached to another series and really has not been up to much since he left the show, other than the odd movie or play or two.

I’m not running AMC, but at this point, I’d call it a day on the Rick Grimes movies and convert those scripts into a new show, bringing him back to the world and the network indefinitely.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.