Spoilers for the latest aired episode of The Walking Dead follow
My current knowledge of The Walking Dead is from recaps and Twitter comments, so please forgive me for not doing a full analysis. Apparently Andrew Lincoln’s final scene aired last night and he didn’t die! He was whisked off in a medical helicopter that came to give him treatment at the last minute. It sounds implausible and like a cheap deus ex machina device designed to leave Rick’s fate open to potential spin offs. That may be the case. Former showrunner Scott M. Gimple was recently promoted to head the entire TWD franchise and he has plans for Rick. Gimple told The Hollywood Reporter that at least three full length Walking Dead movies are planned for AMC and that Lincoln will return. Ca-ching.
“The story of Rick will go on in films,” Gimple says. “Right now, we’re working on three but there’s flexibility in that. … Over the next several years, we’re going to be doing specials, new series are quite a possibility, high-quality digital content and then some content that defies description at the moment. We’re going to dig into the past and see old characters. We’re going to introduce new characters and new situations.”
“Rick Grimes is an amazing character and Andy has done an amazing performance. There were story ideas brewing that, as the years went on, seemed very compatible with continuing to tell the Rick story in another format that would allow him time with his family,” Gimple says, confirming that (spoiler alert) Rick does indeed survive his injuries.
“We look at this as a very long-term proposition,” AMC programming president David Madden tells THR of the larger goal for the franchise. The Rick-centric movies, the executive says, will not be like a bonus or extended episode of the show but rather a “large, big scope movie that will feel like a major motion picture,” with a runtime anticipated to come in at around two hours with a feature film-level budget.
Along with including Rick, they’re going to tell other connected stories of the apocalypse using some fan favorites. (This reminds me that the actor who played Hershel, Scott Wilson, sadly passed away last month at 76.) I don’t blame them for this, the show is still incredibly popular even if ratings have suffered compared to earlier seasons. Plus they must get top advertiser money. I read a lot of comments on Twitter that the commercials seem longer than the actual show. I can’t help but think that they’re going to continue to run this series into the ground, but that’s why they promoted Gimple, right? He’s very good at doing that.
photos courtesy of AMC
