Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) gives update on The Walking Dead movies

After The Walking Dead finally wraps up with its eleventh season, the AMC zombie franchise will be carried by an exciting slate of spin-offs. And no spin-off has fans quite as excited as Andrew Lincoln’s return in a series of movies about Rick Grimes.

Lincoln was last on the mother show in the season 9 episode “What Comes After,” when Rick is carried away, badly injured, in a mysterious Civic Republic helicopter. He has not appeared in the show since, although the Civic Republic has been teased across the franchise.

We’ve known about these movies for a while now, so why haven’t they gone into production yet?The answer isn’t surprising: it’s the pandemic. We’ve become accustomed to our favorite TV and movie sets being delayed over the past year or so. But Lincoln is confident things will start up soon.

“I’m not filming at the moment,” the actor told SFX Magazine. “I’m still very much in lockdown. We’re very excited about how, at the first available opportunity, we’re going to go into production – there’s talk of it being spring. I can’t wait to get those cowboy boots.”

And he’s going to be doing more in the movies than just acting. “I am a producer on it,” he added. “I will not be directing, because I don’t like watching myself, so that would be a self-defeating exercise. It would just be the most painful… yeah, it just wouldn’t happen!”

Could we see Rick in The Walking Dead season 11?

Sure, Andrew Lincoln left the show back in 2018. However, that won’t stop fans from speculating about a possible return for Rick Grimes before we see him in the movies. The show started with Rick and he was the protagonist for many years, so it would be rather fitting to see him in the final season. But when asked, Lincoln played coy:

"The easy answer is I have no idea. I don’t think it’s written yet, but I would never say never to that because everybody that’s still doing the TV show are dear friends, and it’s an extraordinary feat that they’re still going and making this beautiful and ground-breaking show that still resonates with the world."

So he hasn’t categorically denied making an appearance, which is a good sign. Small victories, I guess.

Filming on the final season of The Walking Dead has been ongoing since February this year. It’ll even premiere slightly earlier than other seasons, on August 22. At the moment, Fear the Walking Dead is currently airing the second half of its sixth season, with new episodes arriving Sundays on AMC.

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