In November 2019, a year after Andrew Lincoln left The Walking Dead to spend much more time with his family overseas, showrunner Angela Kang stressed that Rick would absolutely not appear in season 10. Along with that, the production of the series ended in 2021.
Will the character of Rick Grimes return?
From the Walking Dead franchise, actor Lincoln, who played Rick Grimes, disappeared in season 9. There were rumors that he might appear in the show’s final season. But they have not been confirmed.
Traditionally on The Walking Dead, those characters who die a horrible death are not shown again in any subsequent episodes. But as for Rick, he didn’t die in his last episode, even though he was pretty damn close to his demise. He was severely injured when running away from the walkers and was literally put on an iron pin and severely ripped his side open. Then, after an explosion, he was thrown off a bridge into a raging river. But Rick survived that, too; Jadis found him on the riverbank a few miles downstream and radioed the mysterious group of helicopter pilots. The pilots took Jadis’ message and evacuated Rick Grimes to a supposedly safe location.
But at the end of season 11, viewers were left in no doubt that, unfortunately, Rick would not appear on the show again. This is motivated by Andrew Lincoln’s sincere desire to leave behind the grueling schedule of playing a TV project in Atlanta and devote more time to his family living in London.
However, AMC Studios soon announced that the adventures of the much-loved character in the franchise will resume after Season 10, with Michonne (Danai Gurira) joining him again. After more than six years of Michonne’s speculation about Rick’s fate, she found clues hinting that her partner had been alive all along. Michonne found Rick’s cowboy boots and a phone with images of herself and Judith engraved on it. It also had a message engraved in Japanese.
But Grimes never appeared in season 11. And then the AMC channel made the shocking announcement that it was the eleventh season that The Walking Dead would end the series. The last final 24 episodes had been in production for some time, and were airing until the end of 2022. Therefore, it is safe to say that Rick Grimes will no longer appear in The Walking Dead series, and the franchise itself has closed. Before the series ended, the writers created the Walking Dead comics and divided them into spin-offs.
They made a spin-off, “Rick and Michonne,” in which they make up. It shows Rick and what happened to him when he was with the armed forces of the Civilian Republic in the season 9 episode “What Happens After”. This used to be considered a film trilogy, but then turned into a series with Rick and Michonne. This new film production also tells the story of Michonne’s departure in the season 10 episode “What We Become,” where she finds herself up north in search of Rick.
It then shows what has happened to Rick and Michonne since viewers last saw them on The Walking Dead (the last episode aired in 2018). The five-minute epilogue shows Rick and Michonne breaking up and each sending letters home to their families.
In one of the comics, Rick is killed by Pamela’s spoiled son Sebastian, who resents him. Grimes comes to life as a walker, forcing Carl to kill him. Long after his tragic death, Rick is remembered in the Commonwealth as a leader and hero.
Rick Grimes come back to The Walking Dead in the finale series (season 11 episode 24) “Rest In Peace”.
