The Walking Dead: Andrew Lincoln Pitches His Idea For Finale

CBR

By Rob Cave

Published Mar 19, 2017

During "The Walking Dead's" PaleyFest panel, star Andrew Lincoln explained his vision for how the hit AMC drama should end.

Death is a recurring theme on AMC's "The Walking Dead." It is an ever-present threat in the narrative, one from which few characters seem genuinely safe. But if there's one play well-positioned to survive until the series' end, whenever that might be, it's probably Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes.

However, the actor has a fairly elaborate idea for how he'd like Rick to go out on the hit zombie drama, which he shared Friday during the "Walking Dead's" panel at PaleyFest, the annual celebration of television attended by fans, CBR and other outlets.

Replying to an audience question, Lincoln replied, "I'll say this now, this is how I want Rick to die, do you want to hear it?"

Egged on by the audience, he continued, "So I get, we're going through the desert, somewhere, and I jump off the bus […] so I jump in a very heroic act, Rick jumps off [saying] 'Carl!' — he's still alive. Maybe that is the last thing I say."

But Lincoln's idea doesn't end there: "I jump off and I'm like kung-fu-kicking, you know, earn my action figure, right? Halfway through I get bit. Oww! Aww shit, doesn't matter, keep going! 'Carl!' We've got tracks through the desert, high shot, beautiful, high shot, anyway, deal with that stuff then I die, on my own, or I'm waiting to die. I go, I wait, I patch up then a day passes, I patch myself up! — I'm a survivalist! — anyway, I patch myself up and and I don't die. The whole show is 'Holy shit! Maybe I'm the cure?'"

But while creator Robert Kirkman described Lincoln's scenario as "cute," he definitely wasn't taking notes.

Lincoln isn't the only cast member with an eye on how the show should end, however. Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays Sasha Williams, related a suggestion that apparently came from Larry King: "How about last shot, last everything, and whoever's there, we get to the coast and you pan out and we see all the ships blockading, and what we find out that it's just America [that has been affected by the zombie outbreak]?"

While that leaves fans no closer to knowing how the series, or the comic that spawned it, might eventually end, we do know its Season Seven finale arrives on April 2.

Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC, "The Walking Dead" stars Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Melissa McBride as Carol Peleteir, Lauren Cohan as Maggie Green and Danai Gurira as Michonne.