Fans of the zombie apocalypse series The Walking Dead got their hopes up, and then crushed, by writer and showrunner Scott Gimple. TWD’s live aftershow, The Talking Dead, announced its lineup for December 5, which includes a super secret surprise guest. Gimple got fans a little riled up with a simple tweet, and some thought that a fan-favorite actor would be showing up.
Scott Gimple took to Twitter shortly after hyping up fans about the secret guest to apologize after many thought it was Andrew Lincoln, who portrayed Rick Grimes on the series. He explained that although the news not about Rick Grimes, it’s something that’s “been a long time coming.”
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. 1/2December 1, 2021
Some fans were calling out Scott Gimple knowing that most of the Walking Dead fans would probably be hopeful the news would involve Rick Grimes. And just like the series, an apocalypse was almost started, as one Twitter user said:
Calling this BIG knowing most of the fandom is expecting Rick Grimes is a dangerous game my friend. These are high crimes that come with a life sentence of being hounded to the end of the days.
The guests for the upcoming episode include Lennie James, Pollyanna McIntosh, Fear The Walking Dead executive producer Ian Goldberg and The Walking Dead: World Beyond executive producer Matt Negrete. One fan was pulling together all the theories as to who could be the surprise guest, and only kept coming up with one logical answer:
Funny how this round includes the only character left from the first episode ever… with Rick, and the last character to have interacted… with Rick… so special guest again is hopefully??? Rick!
Meanwhile, one fan said what basically everyone wanted and even now, that’s still true:
Rick Grimes is all we want to hear about right now.
While there were fans who were hopeful it would be about Rick Grimes, another was thinking it could possibly be Jeffrey Dean Morgan to promote a Negan spinoff:
My guess is JDM w/ news on a Negan spinoff post #TWD finale.
Even though fans likely won’t find out who the surprise guest is until The Talking Dead actually airs the new episode, hopefully it will be one that will be well worth the wait. And though it looks like it won’t be about Rick Grimes, hopefully Andrew Lincoln will appear on the aftershow soon.
As for a Negan spinoff, that would definitely be big and something that has been a long time coming. Fingers crossed that whoever is the surprise guest will be just as big and have news just as big. If anybody would know how to hype fans in that case, it would surely be Scott Gimple.
Don’t miss The Talking Dead Sundays on AMC!
