Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Walking Dead season 9, episode 5 — ‘What Comes After’.
The much-hyped departure of Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead aired in the US on Sunday (November 4), and surprised everyone.
With fans expecting the death of the protagonist following the explosion at the bridge, ‘What Comes After’ actually ended with Rick being picked up by the same helicopter that took Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), and Jadis promising he would survive and pull through to fight another day.
The unexpected twist naturally had fans stunned, and even more so when chief Walking Dead producer Scott Gimple confirmed Rick’s story would continue in three feature-length Walking Dead movies, which will star Andrew Lincoln and air on AMC, with production beginning on the first next year.
As exciting as that concept may be, it turns out that the original plan was actually for Rick to die. A whole season earlier, in fact.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Lincoln confirmed that the original plan was for Rick to die in season eight.
He also revealed there were a lot of possibilities explored while conjuring how Rick would leave the main series, adding: “There were many iterations [of Rick’s endgame]. A lot of it was down to the good people at AMC, who just said no and they thought it would be an interesting and exciting proposition to expand rather than contract the show.
“Realistically, this decision was all about time. For me to want to do a limited number of episodes [of The Walking Dead] a year wouldn’t feel like I was doing my job properly because playing this part has been so all-encompassing. I think I would get frustrated with that.
“So the idea of being able to contain the story and still work just as hard and tell a different story in maybe a more expansive narrative way seemed very exciting to me.”
With a six-year time jump kicking off next week’s episode ‘Who Are You Now?’, The Walking Dead will move on from Rick’s departure and face a new threat in the form of The Whisperers.
However, you’ll have to watch this space to see where things go in the adventures of Rick Grimes.
The Walking Dead airs on AMC in the US and on FOX and NOW TV in the UK.
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