Courtesy of AMC.
When The Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con earlier his year that this would be his final season on the series, most fans assumed that would be the end for his character Rick Grimes. Why else leave a show that, despite faltering ratings, is still enormously popular? At the time, Lincoln said he wanted to spend more time with his family, and it looks like AMC will be able to give him that and keep their star player in the stable. As Season 9, Episode 5 revealed, Rick didn’t die—he was merely whisked away via helicopter. Immediately after the episode aired Sunday night, AMC announced that Lincoln will star in a series of Rick Grimes-focused original films that will follow the show’s lead onto new adventures.
According to AMC, “The first film will explore the story of where Rick is taken and what he faces in a new corner of the zombie apocalypse.” There are a few clues about this extraordinary move buried in Lincoln’s initial announcement that he would be leaving the show. “My relationship with Mr. Grimes is far from over,” he told the Comic-Con audience in July, though at the time he implied he would be keeping the zombie-hunting sheriff alive in his heart. Appearing on the AMC after-show Talking Dead, Lincoln explained further:
It’s not the beginning of the end, it’s the end of the beginning. And I like the idea that we get to tell a bigger story, maybe with a sort of wider vista. And I’ve always been interested in what’s going on out there, you know, whether or not there is contact with the wider world. I want to know the meta of it all. And I suppose to be able to kind of touch upon that in a contained story for me is a very exciting proposition … Maybe it’s the start of a bigger story.
In theory, a shift from the punishing multi-episode schedule in Atlanta to films that could even be shot over in the U.K. will afford Lincoln the opportunity to head back to London. “I do have a real family and it is time for me to go home, you know?” he told his fans over the summer.
Though spin-offs and changes in lead characters are nothing new in the world of TV and film, this is still somewhat unprecedented A lead actor leaving his own show to head up another project? It’s an ingenious choice on the part of Scott Gimple who recently graduated from show runner on the series to Chief Content Officer of what AMC is calling The Walking Dead Universe. (This also includes existing spin-off series Fear The Walking Dead.) And it’s only his first. Gimplee has an ambitious multi-year plan for The Walking Dead Universe that, according to AMC, involves other “films, specials, series, digital content and more.” Some of the stories will relate to characters and situations familiar to The Walking Dead fans, others will break new ground.
Gimple, who is writing the first installment of the Rick Grimes spin-off, told The New York Times that these films—which will air on AMC—will tell “an original Rick Grimes story and have beefed-up production values.” In other words: “They’re not just longer episodes.” he said. The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is also “heavily involved” according to the Times. This is only the latest bait and switch from a franchise that seems convinced its audience loves nothing more than a surprise. Thus far, that approach hasn’t exactly paid off in terms of ratings and only time will tell if this even bolder move will turn things around for the future.
Credit:Vanity Fair
via USAHint.com
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