Andrew Lincoln to Continue as Rick Grimes in THE WALKING DEAD Movie Series

Relax, Rick Grimes fans...Rick is still walking and isn't dead.

Deadline has reported that actor Andrew Lincoln will continue playing Rick Grimes, his leading character on the AMC series The Walking Dead, in a series of AMC Studios original films, written by Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple.  The films are planned to continue the story of Rick Grimes, with the first expected to begin production as early as 2019.

After playing Rick Grimes for eight seasons on The Walking Dead, Lincoln made his final TV appearance as Rick in "What Comes After", which was written by Matthew Negrate and Gimple.  In the episode, Rick Grimes was mortally wounded and was last seen being flown away by helicopter to an unknown destination.  According to the article, the first film will "explore the story of where Rick is taken and what he faces in a new corner of the zombie apocalypse."

On the Talking Dead aftershow, Lincoln remarked, "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."

The article also states that the Rick Grimes movie series is just one of a series of projects in development from Gimple as part of a multi-year plan for The Walking Dead Universe, which also includes additional films, specials, series, digital content and more.  According to Gimple, the former showrunner of The Walking Dead who was made Chief Content Officer for the brand in January, some stories will relate to what we know about The Walking Dead, while others will be standalone stories in new creative territory.

"We have a lot on the horizon – starting with a new epic featuring one of the greatest leading actors in television history and one of the best people I’ve ever met," said Gimple.  "These films are going to be big evolutions of what we’ve been doing on the show, with the scope and scale of features.  We’re starting with the first part of the continuing story of Rick Grimes, and there is much more on the way, featuring yet-unseen worlds of The Walking Dead and faces from the show’s past, as well as new characters we hope to become favorites, told by TWD veterans and emerging voices.  We want to break new ground with different, distinct stories, all part of the same world that’s captured our imagination for nearly a decade of the Dead."

The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC at 9 p.m. EST.