No, we won’t see Young Rick Grimes in Tales of The Walking Dead

Soon, The Walking Dead universe will continue to expand with a new spinoff, Tales of The Walking Dead, which tells six standalone stories. We already know that Alpha (Samantha Morton) will return, but could we also see any of fan-favorite Rick Grimes? The short answer: no.

As with any huge fandom, one innocent fan theory can quickly gain traction, and all of a sudden, everyone is talking about it. Actor Eric Tiede experienced this for himself. Tiede is starring in the spinoff, although we don’t yet know who he’s playing. But given that he shares a slight resemblance to Andrew Lincoln, the rumors began to fly, so much that Tiede had to take to Twitter to confirm that no, he is not playing Rick Grimes. “I am not playing a younger version of Rick,” he wrote. “Sorry to burst the bubble, but hey, maybe he’s got a cousin out there somewhere.”

It’s quite funny that this theory caught on. I mean, a “young” Rick Grimes would mean we see him before the zombie apocalypse broke out. It would have to be a crazy important tale for the writers to bother with it.

Regardless, this has got me thinking. In the comics, Rick Grimes has a brother, Jeffrey Grimes, who lives in Spain. Jeffrey was introduced in a one-shot comic called “The Alien,” written by Brian K. Vaughan. It would be quite cool to tell a story about Rick’s extended family in a standalone episode. Tales of The Walking Dead seems the perfect show to do it. Hopefully, we see something like this in season 2, if we get there.

The “Rick Grimes” movie eyed director Craig Zobel

During The Walking Dead panel at San Diego Comic-Con, we learned that the Rick Grimes movies AMC once promised us have been scrapped in favor of a six-episode series following Rick and Michonne to be released in 2023.

We don’t know exactly how far down the line the movies were before they got scrapped. According to Deadline, the team eyed director Craig Zobel to direct at least one of them. Zobel is no stranger to apocalyptic worlds. He previously helmed Z for Zachariah, a post-apocalyptic flick starring Chris Pine and Margot Robbie. He’s also had a lot of success on television, having directed episodes of American Gods and Westworld.

It remains to be seen whether AMC will still chase him down to helm episodes of their revised Rick Grimes project. Meanwhile, Tales of The Walking Dead premieres on August 14 on AMC.

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