When The Walking Dead premiered on Halloween night in 2010, it immediately grabbed the attention of viewers everywhere. Part of that was due to the protagonist, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). Rick served as the audience’s point of view character for the series, as he woke up from a coma to find the world had been radically changed and overrun by walkers. The first episode is primarily focused on him and over the course of the series, audiences saw Rick rediscover his wife and son, confront his former best friend, and make many alleys along the way. While the series was an ensemble, he was the main character of the series.

Then, in 2018, during the series ninth season, star Andrew Lincoln departed The Walking Dead, and Rick Grimes was written out of the series. Yet unlike other characters, Rick was not killed out and instead seemed to be whisked away, leaving the door open for the character’s return. Speculation on a spin-off project focused solely on Rick began to make the rounds. Lincoln reprised his role for the final episode of The Walking Dead in November 2022. Rick’s story will continue in the upcoming spin-off, The Walking Dead: The Ones We Who Live, which premieres on AMC on February 25th, 2024.

How did Rick’s storyline end on The Walking Dead? How did he survive? Did he ever return to the original series before the events of the upcoming miniseries? All of your answers can be found here.

What Happened to Rick at the End of The Walking Dead?

Since Rick’s debut, he had always been a defacto leader in the various groups he served in on The Walking Dead. In season 9, the final season with him as the lead, he united various communities led by favorite characters like Maggie (Lauren Cohen), Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), and Ezekiel (Khary Payton). Yet his decision to spare the life of the previous season’s villain, Neegan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), was controversial among Maggie and Daryl. After a heated confrontation between Rick and Daryl regarding Maggie’s attempt to kill Neegan, the two fall into a pit.

While the two escape, they are overcome by Walkers, with Rick taking a horse to lead them away from Daryl so he can drive off and warn the compound of the incoming horde. Rick is then thrown from his horse and impaled on a piece of rebar, as he begins to lose consciousness as the walkers converge on him.

In the fifth episode of season nine, titled “What Comes After”, Rick manages to make it back to his horse while bleeding heavily but manages to bandage himself up at an abandoned cabin. Throughout the episode, Rick hallucinates people from his past as he bleeds out. In his final moment in the series, he lures a group of walkers to a bridge and detonates a thing of dynamite, destroying the bridge and sending the Walkers to fall into the river. To many of Rick’s friends and loved ones, they saw him apparently die in the explosion. Yet audiences got to see more of the story.

Towards the end of the episode, the character of Anne/Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) finds Rick in the river, severely injured but still alive. She loads Rick onto a helicopter, and the two are taken to an unknown location. This marked the end for Rick as a main character in the series, but his presence would be felt throughout. Following a time jump, season 10 finds Rick’s love interest, Michonne (Danai Gurira), discovering Rick’s boots and an old iPhone with Rick’s name on it as well as a drawing of herself and Rick’s daughter Judith scratched into it. This leaves Michonne to believe Rick is alive and leaves to go searching for him. This marked the departure of star Dani Gurari from The Walking Dead as a main character, but both she and Andrew Lincoln would reprise their roles one last time to set up the upcoming spin-off.

How The Walking Dead Sets Up The Ones Who Live

AMC

The series finale of The Walking Dead, titled “Rest in Peace,” aired on November 20, 2022. That episode featured not only the return of Rick Grimes but also Michonne, who had left the series in season 10. On horseback on Bloodsworth Island, Michonne finds Ricks’s belongings. Meanwhile, Rick is located by a CRM (Civic Republic Military) helicopter and is ordered to surrender, which he obeys. This hinted that audiences would see Rick and Michone again, as while The Walking Dead might have been over, their story was not.

By the time the series finale aired, fans knew a spin-off was coming. Conformation of the Rick Grimes spin-off series was officially confirmed in July 2022. It was confirmed that Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira would reprise their roles as Rick Grimes and Michonne, respectively. Due to Gurira being in high demand thanks to her involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Okoye, the series will be a limited series consisting of six episodes instead of a multi-season spin-off like Dead City or Daryl Dixon. Gurira is not only starring in the series but also is the co-creator of the series alongside showrunner Scott M. Gimple. She is also writing for the series. The project was originally announced as The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne before being retitled The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live in July 2023.

The series trailer shows a massive epic, one that is clearly benefiting from the limited series budget. The reported budget is 82.75 million, averaging at about $13.7 million per episode. The trailer implies that the story will follow two parallel stories, one focusing on Rick and another on Michonne, and pick up where audiences last saw them in The Walking Dead, and they will likely reunite at the mid-point of the series. Check out the trailer for the upcoming series below:

When Does The Walking Dead: The One Who Live Premiere, And Where To Watch It

The Walking Dead: The One Who Lives premieres on AMC on February 25, 2024. The series will also be available to stream on AMC+. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live will consist of six episodes and will conclude on March 31, 2024. This marks the seventh series in The Walking Dead franchise and might tease an upcoming crossover event among the various series.

NAME
AIR DATE

The Walking Dead
October 31, 2010 – November 20, 2022

Fear The Walking Dead
August 23, 2015 – November 19, 2023

Walking Dead: World Beyond
October 4, 2020 – December 5, 2021

Tales of the Walking Dead
August 14, 2022 – September 18, 2022

The Walking Dead: Dead City
June 18, 2023 – Present

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
September 10, 2023 – Present

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
February 25, 2024 – March 31, 2024