Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's episode, "Time for After."
In Rick's plight to build an army capable of taking out Negan and his Saviors, he most recently tried to reenlist the help of Jadis and her junkyard Scavengers, despite the fact that he'd been burned before. To convince the word-conscious leader of the seriousness behind his claim, Rick had to rumble with another battle-ready walker, though this time he was barely clothed for it. In fact, star Andrew Lincoln said he actually tried to get Rick to go fully nude for that fight, but no one allowed it to happen. In his words:
My first question, when I read the episode, I told to Scott [Gimple], 'Surely Michonne comes to save Rick and sees him naked and I'm like, 'It's not what it looks like!' [laughs] You know what I mean? I wanted that scene! . . . It means that I kind of get to do a naked smackdown, which, frankly, I'm down for. And I don't care that it's a little bit of a leap of faith, so long as I got to wrestle in boxer shorts all day. It was a really fun fight, and I was desperate to be naked, but they wouldn't let me be naked. I did one take, I said, 'Please, just the cowboy boots. Just do that.' And for some reason, AMC weren't particularly comfortable with that.
Considering AMC allowed Jadis and her trash pals to walk around naked last week beneath their aprons, it's almost surprising that no one was willing to let Andrew Lincoln get a little cheekier than normal when battling a walker. After all, Norman Reedus spent part of his Sanctuary imprisonment in the buff, despite not exactly loving it. That was all part of Negan's efforts to dehumanize him, and wasn't exactly meant to offer the kind of salacious fun that Nude Rick vs. Winslow 2.0 would be.
Andrew Lincoln offered up his revealing intentions in a new video from AMC that went behind the scenes of "Time for After," and he was quite amused at the prospect of Rick taking on a walker in his birthday suit. (What does birthday suit mean in a world where people aren't tracking their birthdays?) He was interested to the point where it seems like he might up the ante in demanding it happen in the future. Since Aaron and Enid are currently going to the female-only Oceanside to ask for help, that would definitely be an interesting place for Rick to get a nude scene.
There might not be any time for naked chicanery next Sunday, though, as The Walking Dead's midseason finale might be a little too hectic for anyone to worry about being comfortable in their natural elements. Something huge is supposed to happen, be it a major death or...well, it's probably a major death. Here's hoping whoever eats it gets to keep their clothes on, though.
Check out how that scene might have shown given us a first look at the Whisperers, and then head to our fall TV premiere schedule and our 2018 midseason premiere schedule to see all the non-zombie shows heading to the small screen soon.
