Posted in: AMC, Preview, TV, Walking Dead, YouTube | Tagged: Rick Grimes, robert kirkman, sdcc, sdcc 2023, The Walking Dead, TWD

The Walking Dead Ignored Robert Kirkman's Rick Grimes Advice (Whew!)

If the writers had listened to Robert Kirkman, it would've been impossible for Rick Grimes to appear in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.

Coming out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023, the TWD universe is still buzzing about the teaser for AMC & AMC+'s The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The six-episode spinoff series features the return of Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes & Danai Gurira's Michonne – a return that would've been impossible if the show's writers' room had listened to The Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman. During a one-on-one panel discussion on Saturday, Kirkman shared that when he was involved in the early stages of the live-action series, he wanted to push things as far away from where the comic book series went. And, yes… that included killing off some very famous characters.

"With 'Walking Dead,' I was much younger and much more reckless. I was an absolute lunatic. I would get in the writers' room and be like, 'Kill Rick Grimes today! I don't care! It'll be funny! People will freak out, and it'll be fun!' The writers were like, 'Robert, you're crazy. We can't do that.' But any time there were big changes in 'The Walking Dead,' that's what excited me," Kirkman shared with the audience. Thankfully, the closest the series came to fulfilling Kirkman's vision was removing Rick from the playing field in the middle of the long-running series' ninth season, keeping him in the confines of CRM – at least, for now.

The Walking Dead: Rick Grimes & Michonne

The spinoff series presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick (Lincoln) and Michonne (Gurira) are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they've ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead? Here's a look back at Gurira's and EP Denise Huth's Instagram posts from March, sharing close-up looks at a bloody Rick Grimes (thankfully, it doesn't look like it's his blood):

In the following featurette, Lincoln and Gurira discuss what it was like being back to celebrate the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. We get to learn why killing a walker was important for Lincoln during his scenes and how Gurira is viewing her upcoming return to the role as presenting "Michonne 2.0." Here's a look at the complete featurette, Show Me More: The Walking Dead Last Episodes (Behind the Scenes). Thought the entire profile of the show's final run is worth checking out, jump to the 26:10 mark to hear from Lincoln, Gurira, and others about Rick & Michonne's epic return:

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