The Walking Dead: Andrew Lincoln Started Thinking About Rick’s Exit in Season 4
The news of Andrew Lincoln‘s exit from The Walking Dead may still seem fresh for fans who have been following his journey as Rick Grimes for nine seasons, but even though he left in season nine, he had been thinking about it for a lot longer. Like, back in the days of the prison.
[row]”It was a lot to do with a conversation that Scott [Gimple] and I had a few years ago, maybe in season 4, about a shape, and finding some way to complete something that was never going to be completed,” he said in an interview with Digital Spy.[/row]
In a way, it makes sense that he would be proactive in talking to the showrunners about where his character was heading. I mean AMC has said that the show could go on forever and Robert Kirkman‘s comic book shows no signs of stopping, so to expect Lincoln to be on the show until that final “cut!” would be a huge expectation.
Of course, even though he brought it up way back in season 4, the integrity of the show and the character of Rick was always Lincoln’s number one priority, telling Gimple that his “his biggest concern was not disturbing the mothership by writing out Rick at an inopportune moment.”
So, here we are nine seasons later and that opportune moment has finally arrived. Lincoln added that while his departure marks the ending of an important chapter, it offers the opportunity to free the show of its initial framing device and begin a whole new story.
[row]”You know, there was a sense that the story has been a man waking up and you experience this world through his eyes,” he said. “Now what’s exciting, I think, is the fact that the narrative is being freed up. It’s already being freed up from the beginning of this [upcoming ninth] season.”[/row]
We couldn’t have imagined Andrew Lincoln departing the show any earlier and his vacancy is still felt. Fans have been teased with the continued promise of a Walking Dead movie, starring Lincoln. However, it’s been nearly two years since that promise and, along with the global pandemic, production doesn’t feel like it’s any closer to starting.
Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, believes that the delay, and now the pandemic, will actually help the film be even better. “There’s tons of stuff going on behind the scenes. I don’t want anyone to think that we’re just kind of waiting around for this pandemic to end,” Kirkman said. “I would say that, if anything, the pandemic is going to make a lot of movies better. I think the Rick Grimes movie chief among them, just because we’re getting a lot more time to cook this thing and make sure it’s perfect. But when things do quiet down, you guys are going to hear a ton more about this movie.”
What are your thoughts on the Rick Grimes films?
The Walking Dead returns on October 4th with the Season 10 Finale on AMC!
This article was updated by Micajah, previously published by Casey Perriccio on July 26, 2018.
Having studied Media & Writing at James Madison University, I always knew that I wanted to do some type of creative writing, but being able to write about zombies, Starks, and superheroes on a daily basis for Fan Fest is my actual dream. While I probably shouldn’t be as proud as I am to be so similar to Nick Miller, I do hope to one day write my own “Pepperwood Chronicles’.
