The Walking Dead - Rick Grimes Season 9

When Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes returns to the universe of The Walking Dead in his own feature film, he’ll be the same character, but the story around him will have a much different tone than the hit AMC series.

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman talked about making a movie centered on Rick, as reported by ComicBook.com. He sees a major difference in creating an ensemble story with an ever-shifting cast like the one in The Walking Dead and its spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead, versus a story focused on a single character.

“I think that the show is very much an ensemble story and this is very much Rick story,” said Kirkman. “So, I think being able to focus more on Rick as a character and do more with him is really cool.”

Rick was the first character to appear in The Walking Dead, with its pilot episode focused on him exploring the zombie apocalypse on his own. For several seasons he remained a central character, but as others were gradually introduced and their own stories expanded, the spotlight moved off of him and it became a true ensemble show.

Rick was last seen in Season 9, injured and thought dead by his former companions. The movie centered on him, which is intended as the first in a trilogy, is expected to fill in the gaps about what he’s been doing since then.

“I think it’s gonna be a very different kind of Walking Dead story, which is really exciting,” Kirkman went on to say. “You know, when you’re doing something like this you have to make sure that it makes sense for it to be a movie. This isn’t just some kind of expansion of what you’re expecting from the show. This is something that’s gonna be very different but it’s gonna be the Rick Grimes that we all know and love.”

In a nod to the many delays that film and television projects have faced over the past year, he added, “And I’m very excited for people to finally see it when it’s released in 2032.”

Directed by Rosemary Rodriguez, the untitled The Walking Dead film does not currently have a release date. The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews.