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TWD: The Ones Who Live: "Something Truly Horrific" for Rick Grimes?

Andrew Lincoln on returning for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live and how "something truly horrific" happens in the opening minutes.

With AMC's Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) & Danai Gurira (Michonne)-starring The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live hitting our screens in just a little more than two weeks, it was time to have a big premiere. And that's exactly what happened on Wednesday night, with Lincoln, Gurira, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Terry O'Quinn, Matthew August Jeffers, Craig Tate, The Walking Dead CCO Scott M. Gimple, and more hitting the red carpet in Los Angeles to get the word out about the spinoff series. Previously, we learned from Gimple that TOWL may not necessarily be limited to being a limited series – and now, we're getting to hear from Lincoln on what the Rick Grimes return has been like. "It was great to be the sheriff again. I missed the people. I missed the culture of the show," Lincoln shared about returning to his iconic role. And though the knees might be hurting a bit more than they used to, the actor added, "It was remarkably easy to put the cowboy boots back on." Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the same could be said for his on-screen alter-ego, who goes through "something truly horrific" during the opening minutes.

While there have been a ton of rumblings that live-action Rick Grimes would finally follow in his comic book counterpart's footsteps in losing a hand, that wasn't something that was specially referenced. But Lincoln compares the moment to the opening minutes of the original series – a real tone-setter. "In the first three or four minutes of a whole series, there is something truly horrific that happens," Lincoln offered. As the actor sees it, the moment is just an example of how TOWL writers were looking to present Rick with a new environment that would result in having to make the kind of decisions he hasn't had to make in the past.

"I think in the writers' room, there was a real intention to place Rick in an environment and a mindset that he had not been before. I think that was quite key because he had been pushed and pulled and stretched and pummeled and abused in the main series for so long, traumatized, that we thought, 'Where can we place him?' So it was a new adventure, and that made it very, very exciting and appealing, obviously," Lincoln explained. But even with so much canon & mythology building up to this six-episode series, Lincoln appreciates that TOWL didn't lose sight of Rick & Michonne's love story. "It is an epic love story. That was the ambition. And I'm really glad that we got to really land the love aspect," he added.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live: Terry O'Quinn on Beale & More

O'Quinn Offers Some Background on Beale: "He is the leader of the Civic Republic military, and it operates pretty independently of the Civic Republic government. So he doesn't really have to deal with them very much. And he's held in high esteem. He's kind of a hero. He has a long military history. He served two terms in Vietnam and went to officer training school. And he's had to make some decisions in terms of who lives and who dies and how to deal with the mass of walking dead," O'Quinn shares during his interview with EW. "He has a big army, but he has about 2,000 of his front liners. They're his elite corps, and they do most of the work – be it dirty or not dirty. He makes decisions based on what he thinks will help his community survive. And it's completely that he's trying to make sure that this city survives, so he makes some tough decisions."

O'Quinn on What Makes Beale Tick: Describing the CRM General as "a hidden guy," O'Quinn sees Beale as a "by any means necessary" person – but unlike past TWD universe big-bads, Beale's not looking to be threatening or malicious in the moves he makes. "He seems like a completely reasonable person, and the decisions he has to make are all explicable to him. He understands why he has to do what he has to do, whether some people agree with it or not. So I think personality-wise, he has a history with all of his troops, and with the Civic Republic, he's sort of a military, George Washington in the eyes of a lot of these people." But once Rick enters the scene and the two are positioned to have to deal with one another, Beale's layers will begin to show. "When he starts dealing with Rick, we don't know exactly what to do with him, or who he is, or what he is. And so he plays coy with Rick a lot, and I think there's a lot to be found out there. So Rick helps discover the heart of the man, I think," O'Quinn added.

With the series set to premiere on February 25, 2024, here's a look at the latest teaser/behind-the-scenes look at The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – followed by a look back at the previously-released New York Comic Con teaser as well as the road taken to the spinoff:

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? Joining Lincoln & Gurira are Pollyanna McIntosh as CRM Warrant Officer Jadis Stokes, Lesley-Ann Brandt as Pearl Thorne,  Terry O'Quinn as CRM Major General Beale, and Matthew August Jeffers as Nat.

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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