Big Walking Dead News is Coming This Weekend, But It’s Not About the Rick Grimes Movie

The Walking Dead director Scott M. Gimple teased something big coming this weekend, but quickly had to manage fan expectations.

Fans of The Walking Dead have been waiting an eternity for the fabled “Rick Grimes Movie”, which has been promised since Andrew Lincoln’s character was airlifted from the flagship series in Season 9, so when word of a big announcement being made this Sunday from the Walking Dead Universe it seemed that there was finally some light at the end of that particular tunnel. As you would expect then, it took no time for producer Scott M. Gimple to shoot down the idea by warning fans not expect the reveal to involve Rick Grimes or his – supposedly – upcoming movie.

Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes was the heart and soul of The Walking Dead from its first episode, awakening in a hospital bed to find a mysterious disease had taken over the world and turned regular people into bloodthirsty zombies. After leading an ever evolving group of survivors from one trauma to another over nine seasons, including the tyrannical times of The Governor and Negan, Rick took his last stand in a bridge explosion and was assumed dead by most of the other characters, while audiences knew his fate was not quite as final.

Since that last appearance in 2018, it has been constantly teased that fans will see Rick Grimes again, first in a big trilogy of cinematic movie outings, which over time became one single film, but so far even that doesn’t have any set arrival date, and back in July director Greg Nicotero revealed that he doesn’t know when the movie will actually begin filming. That doesn’t sound quite the positive outlook that some fans had hoped so the announcement that something is coming this weekend was immediately jumped on as the sign they have been waiting for. Once again, it did not take long for hopes to be smashed over the head like so many of the shambling creatures of the show, with Gimple first raising expectations, then soon after returning to lower them again.

The Walking Dead accompanying show Talking Dead this Sunday will feature a special guest, and Gimple kicked off speculation by commenting on social media saying, “This will be BIG” but when the name Rick Grimes exploded everywhere, Gimple returned to Twitter to clarify his comment, posting, “I see this blew up a li’l bit. It’s big, but it’s not about Rick Grimes. We’re sorry some things are taking a while — this announcement is something, though, that’s been a long time coming. THANK YOU for being with us on this journey; everyday alll around the country (& the world!) we endeavor to make stuff to thrill you, to intrigue you, to make you feel — we’re working hard not to let you down. If you dig the TWDU, Sunday’s news will be massive and momentous.”

While there has recently been talk of future Walking Dead spinoffs including Tales of The Walking Dead and a show based on Carol and Daryl, it is hard to see any of those currently being as dominant in the mind as Gimple suggested, and if this special guest is anyone associated with those series, that means it will also be someone who has been a part of numerous other Talking Dead shows and therefore not that special. So while we wait with baited breath – and a sense of impending disappointment – for Sunday’s news, the only thing we know for certain is that the wait for the return of Rick Grimes goes on a little longer.

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