SPOILER ALERT
“There is more story to tell and we’ll be telling it.”
Those are the words of The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott M. Gimple, who tells The Hollywood Reporter that leading man Andrew Lincoln — following his departure Sunday fromthe flagship series — will reprise his iconic role as Rick Grimes in a series of three big-budget, feature-length TV movies for AMC. Gimple is currently writing the first of the untitled series of telepics, with production set to begin in 2019. Still to be determined is an air date and where the movies will film as Lincoln departed The Walking Dead in order to spend more time with his family in England. The trio of movies are the first of multiple new scripted ventures that will come from Gimple as AMC kicks off its long-term plan to grow its multibillion-dollar franchise.
“The story of Rick will go on in films,” Gimple says. “Right now, we’re working on three but there’s flexibility in that. … Over the next several years, we’re going to be doing specials, new series are quite a possibility, high-quality digital content and then some content that defies description at the moment. We’re going to dig into the past and see old characters. We’re going to introduce new characters and new situations.”
The three TV movies grew out of a conversation that Gimple and Lincoln had as far back as season four of the AMC zombie drama. The duo, who both have what Lincoln describes as “young families,” decided that the actor would exit the series in season eight. In an extensive interview, Lincoln told THR that the original plan was for his Rick Grimes — the face of the franchise and comic series on which it is based — to be killed off in season eight. That plan evolved. Lincoln — who loves the character and world of The Walking Dead — and Gimple — the former showrunner who was promoted earlier this year to oversee the franchise’s expansion at AMC — jointly decided to continue Rick’s story in a way that made better logistical sense for the actor and offered a way for AMC to expand the overall franchise. While details are still being sorted out, the current plan calls for Lincoln to be in production on each movie for two months. That’s a far cry from the nine months he spent every year for the past decade filming the series in the Atlanta heat.
“Rick Grimes is an amazing character and Andy has done an amazing performance. There were story ideas brewing that, as the years went on, seemed very compatible with continuing to tell the Rick story in another format that would allow him time with his family,” Gimple says, confirming that (spoiler alert) Rick does indeed survive his injuries.
The movies are the first part of the Gimple-led expansion of the Walking Dead universe. The movies will be AMC Studios Original Films and air likely on AMC and, in success, a second party as the cabler looks for a partner to share the costs.
“We look at this as a very long-term proposition,” AMC programming president David Madden tells THR of the larger goal for the franchise. The Rick-centric movies, the executive says, will not be like a bonus or extended episode of the show but rather a “large, big scope movie that will feel like a major motion picture,” with a runtime anticipated to come in at around two hours with a feature film-level budget.
Since its launch a decade ago, The Walking Dead has become a global phenomenon. The tale of survival amid the apocalypse was, at one point, the biggest series on all of television — averaging an envious 10.7 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic and 21.5 million viewers (with seven days of DVR). While season nine has hit a string of series lows, Walking Dead still ranks among the top five shows on TV in the demo (excluding sports). Season nine currently averages a 4.0 in the demo and 9.4 million viewers.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter