The Walking Dead's 11th and final season might see Rick Grimes' reappearance.
"That's a very good question," Andrew Lincoln answered when asked about the potential return of his character to the series by SFX Magazine. "The easy answer is I have no idea."
Lincoln stated that, to his knowledge, no Season 11 scenes involving Grimes have been written. "But I would never say never to that because everybody that's still doing the TV show are dear friends," he continued. "And it's an extraordinary feat that they're still going and making this beautiful and ground-breaking show that still resonates with the world."
The actor also spoke about the planned trilogy of films centering on Grimes, noting, "I have signed for more than one film. I am a producer on it. I will not be directing, because I don’t like watching myself, so that would be a self-defeating exercise."
Lincoln also noted that a lot of unanswered questions about the movies will be resolved within the next couple of months, stating, "We need to get the first one absolutely right and that’s why it’s taken longer than we anticipated -- and obviously with the pandemic. I can't wait. I'm really excited about broadening the scale and scope of the story and finding out where Rick is."
Lincoln's comments came after The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman teased the Grimes-centered films will be a major departure from the AMC series. Specifically, he revealed, "I think that the show is very much an ensemble story and this is very much Rick's story. So, I think being able to focus more on Rick as a character and do more with him is really cool."
Lincoln portrayed Rick Grimes for the first nine seasons of The Walking Dead. Lincoln last appeared in the series in Season 9, Episode 5, when a gravely injured Grimes blew up a bridge in hopes of preventing a hoard of Walkers from attacking his friends. While it was initially believed Grimes didn't survive the explosion, it was revealed at the end of the episode that Jadis rescued him and called in a mysterious helicopter. The final scene showed Lincoln's character being loaded into the helicopter and taken to an unknown destination.
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. Season 11 premieres Aug. 22 on AMC.
Source: SFX Magazine