When picturing The Walking Dead's TV show, fans no doubt have a bunch of different thoughts that come to mind, but it's safe to assume that the image of Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes is a prominent one. But the actor himself apparently doesn't have a hard time thinking about The Walking Dead at a point when he's not involved anymore. It's not an issue of disinterest or fatigue, though, but rather an urge to see Rick's story conclude. In Lincoln's words:
I think that there's an innate feeling and certainly in me that I love doing a play or doing the film because you get to put a period on the end of it and you get to do it nightly, which is really exciting. TV is different. The format is different because it is about sort of a continuum. But, you know, there is a sense to me that really needs some...it sounds like I'm in a shrink's head, but there is a completion thing that I think I deserve for doing it for so long. And also probably the audience would like some completion. . . . There's only so many ways you can bend and stretch this and that. I'm not saying that the show would ever finish, but I certainly think that there's an opportunity for the show to change at some point, and I think it should.
I don't know about you guys, but I think it's impossible for me to envision The Walking Dead in any format without Rick and his beard in charge of post-apocalyptic survival. After all these years of the comic and TV show, I just don't know what that would look like. Sure, some of the Walking Dead video games don't have Rick in them, but it's not like those feature all the other characters without him. It's perhaps easy to conceive the story in the abstract without its woeful leader, but Andrew Lincoln feels still mostly necessary at this point.
That said, I do understand what Andrew Lincoln is talking about. There are only a handful of actors on The Walking Dead that have survived since those earliest days, so logic would dictate that some of those core characters would end up dying off before all is said and done. And since Carol is likely meant to stick around until the end, that would leave Rick, Carl, Morgan and Daryl. The latter's death would cause riots, and Carl's death would be...nice, but not likely. So we'll probably see Morgan go down next where those characters are concerned, and then...well, it seems like Rick would be next on the list.
In talking with EW about it all, Andrew Lincoln was asked what he thought about the torch for the Grimes legacy being passed on to Carl and having the show focus on the the teen in the future. And he sounds perfectly down with it.
Absolutely. It's beautifully set up for that --- for the camera to be certainly [Rick's] story, and then it just shifts off. If ever there was a landscape or an environment to do that, it's our show. But whether or not that's this season... well, you have to find out, don't you?
It would be really interesting if that Old Rick flash-forward hinted at in the first Season 8 trailer was a first clue at Rick's reign coming to an end in The Walking Dead's nearish future. It would be a stark change from the comic book source material to kill Rick off before the story is complete -- at least in its current state -- but creator Robert Kirkman doesn't have an issue with it, saying that although Andrew Lincoln is such an iconic part of the series, the massive ensemble is strong enough to carry on without him, especially in the ever-expanding world at large. But Kirkman says it's not something we'll need to worry about "any time soon," so expect to see Rick living on well beyond the All Out War with Negan.
That aforementioned war and its action-heavy mayhem will kick off when The Walking Dead returns to AMC for Season 8 on Sunday, October 22, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see all the other upcoming shows on TV that don't have Rick Grimes in them, head to our fall TV premiere schedule.
