Walking Dead's Rick Grimes Movies Still Planning To Release in Theaters

[Eren]

The Walking Dead's Chief Creative Officer Scott Gimple says the plan is still to release the Rick Grimes movies in theaters, but only when it's safe. AMC recently announced that The Walking Dead will be coming to an end after an extended season 11, which will take place over two years, but that isn't the end for The Walking Dead universe. There are two spinoff shows, Fear The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, and the core show will also result in a Daryl and Carol-focused spinoff.

But the biggest shift for the universe is into feature movies. Gimple and original TWD creator Robert Kirkman are currently hard at work crafting a reported trilogy of features focused on the series' original lead, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). The movies were announced at Comic-Con in 2019, and are believed to focus on Rick's storyline after he is taken in the helicopter in season 9. But Kirkman recently confirmed he is heavily involved and that the team is working hard on making them as good as they can be, and ending Grimes' story properly.

But now Gimple has revealed to Decider that the plan is still to release the Rick Grimes movies in theaters. Speaking about the long-term future of the franchise, Gimple says that despite the coronavirus affecting theaters worldwide, they are still sticking to the plan to release the Rick Grimes features in theaters. He adds that the pandemic has allowed the team to "hone things" for the movies. You can read his full comments below:

The news is interesting, as it means that, as of now, the movies haven't been bought up by a streaming service, or adjusted to be released as TV movies on AMC itself. This is in contract to AMC's Breaking Bad spinoff movie, El Camino, which only had a limited run in theaters and debuted on Netflix simultaneously. It's also perhaps a sign that AMC is throwing a bit more money behind the movies, in an attempt to make them look theater-worthy.

One of the criticisms of The Walking Dead over the recent seasons is that it has often had to sacrifice quality in favor of quantity, leading to some disappointing scenes that were clearly limited by budget constraints. Perhaps the Rick Grimes movies, focusing as they do on one of the show's most popular characters, will reverse that trend and put a spectacle up on screen. As for when the movies will be released, that's anyone's guess, though don't bet on them appearing before The Walking Dead core series is finished.