The Walking Dead Expansion Plans Revealed

NUTZZ · 05-11-2018 8:18pm #1

**SPOILER WARNING IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN SEASON 9 EPISODE 5**

FINAL WARNING

Andrew Lincoln to Lead 3 AMC Movies

The actor, who officially departed the flagship series Sunday, will reprise his role as Rick Grimes in a trio of big-budget, feature-length movies that will air on the basic cable network. Content chief Scott M. Gimple talks with The Hollywood Reporter about his larger plan for the franchise.

"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 from the 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 movies are the first part of the Gimple-led expansion of the Walking Dead universe. The movies will be AMC Studios Original Films, will likely air 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 and a feature film-level budget.

Gimple confirmed Lincoln will indeed be in all three AMC movies, which he says will explore the period between Rick's helicopter rescue and the years-later time jump that was featured at the end of Sunday's episode — and stretch beyond that period. Each movie will tell a complete story about Rick. "It is about who he is and who he's going to be — and certainly how he deals with the situation he's in," Gimple says. "We know Rick Grimes; he would want to be home.