Fans of The Walking Dead have a lot to look forward to. AMC recently announced that the show would be coming to an end with its 11th season. That doesn’t mean the world it takes place in is going anywhere though. That’s far from the case actually. The spin-off series, Fear the Walking Dead, is still going strong with its sixth season premiering on October 11th. Right before that, The Walking Dead: World Beyond will have its premiere on October 4th. This limited series will focus on teens in the zombie-infested world. Besides that, there is a spin-off for fan-favorite characters Daryl and Carol in development. Then, of course, there are the movies starring Andrew Lincoln as original series protagonist Rick Grimes.
News of the spin-off trilogy initially broke last July. We haven’t heard much about it since, though the announcement trailer ended with the promise that Rick Grimes would return “only in theaters.”. The Walking Dead Chief Creative Officer Scott M. Gimple recently spoke to Decider on the various tie-ins in development. His update on the movies essentially stated this is still the case, despite COVID-19 severely hindering box office draws.
The plan is for it to be in theaters. The only reason I say too far off or anything like that is just — we live in totally crazy times. Everything seems great. We’re following the plan for it to be in theaters. We’re making it a theatrical film. But with the way things are going, there might be an alien invasion tomorrow. I, for one, welcome our Martian overlords. Who knows? There’s a lot of craziness out in the world right now. But we’re following the plan, and we’re doing just as Robert said: we’re using the time to hone things up.”
Gimple echoes the sentiments of The Walking Dead comic creator, Robert Kirkman, from July. He stated that the pandemic has given him more time to work on the scripts. However, this means we’ll be waiting quite a while to see Rick Grimes return.