SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Sundays What Comes After episode ofThe Walking Dead.
Rick Grimes is gone.
But when the bridge wouldnotcollapse, Rick had to blow it up, sacrificing himself in the process.
Gene Page/AMC
Or so we thought.
But not unknown for long.
EW can report that Lincoln will be returning for atrilogy ofWalking Deadmovies to air on AMC.
Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
Hes such a trooper and hes such a wonderful, positive presence on set.
Everybody really showed up for him, just trying to make the best episode we could possible make.
He asked everybody put your phones away; let this just be us.
Gene Page/AMC
Why Shane, Sasha, and Hershel?
Its like some sort of survival instinct that kicks in.
Shane, who was such a monumental figure, that one was very obvious for us.
Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
Shane has fundamentally changed the person that Rick was from the first season Rick that we saw.
Shane has had such a lasting effect.
There have been times when Rick drifted into Shane-like territory.
And then at times where he kind of looks like, Wait, wait, wait.
Ive gone too far in that brutal direction.
Ive got to course correct and be more humane again.
That kind of made sense.
Theres so much grief surrounding that family, so much that theyve been through.
Rick goes someplace that he imagines is like heaven, if he could just stop and rest there.
But of course, the message from Hershel is no, you still have to keep going.
Shes able to put that together like a larger picture for him.
But we always felt like this three was a very strong three to go forward with.
He was so lovely, and we didnt know he was sick at the time yet.
Everybody was so happy to have him there, so that was really, really great for us.
Lets talk about something that didnt make the episode.
Because I think Rick got this emotional wound from seeing all these dead bodies.
It didnt need Negan on top of it to drive that point home.
Why does Michonne finally let Maggie into that cell?Im so glad you liked that.
I loved that scene, too, and I think Lauren and Danai did amazing work in that scene.
I got shivers when I watched the first cut of it.
Scott and I had talked very early on about this idea of the Maggie versus Michonne story.
But I kept coming back to these two women.
They love each other.
She had that same sense of need for vendetta, or vengeance against the Governor.
Theres a kind of hypocrisy to trying to say you cant ever have this feeling about this.
Its this trauma thats at the heart of their lives that they all give a shot to grapple with.
They just have a very, very deep disagreement about how they should have gone forward.
She is not sure if they made the right decision sparing him.
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Its something that we need to get to some sort of a reckoning with between the two of them.
Because everybody kind of knows how our characters grieve after a big loss.
You mentioned the jump.
How long is this time jump?Were calling this a six-year time jump.
What can you say about these new strangers that we met being saved by Judith?
But the way that we chose to do it, its a little bit different.
Magna and Yumiko, theyre a couple.
They are very strong survivors.
Were seeing that this group has been on the road for a very long time.
Theyre all very good at surviving.
We wanted to play with how these characters are and their personalities.
Nadia Hilker, who plays Magna, hails from Germany.
Shes of Middle Eastern and German descent, so she speaks with her accent.
Were not trying to play her like a southern from America.
We like that international flavor.
And Eleanor Matsuura, who plays Yumiko, hails from the UK.
Shes of British and Japanese descent, so shes got her British accent.
And hes been just absolutely wonderful to have.
The audience gets these characters who are really a breath of fresh air.
Speaking of the bridge explosion, Rick blows it up, takes down the herd.
We think hes dead.
He washes up on the beach.
Next thing we know, hes in the helicopter with Jadis.
We are going to see a continuation of that story starting in aWalking Deadseries of movies.
He and Andy had had conversations pre-dating when I took over the show as showrunner.
Scott has this vision of what this next chapter is with Rick.
And then it was up to us to figure out how to get it there.
I do know a bit about what that mythology is.
Theyre flying around helicopters in a time when theres a lot of scarcity of other things.
They deal in human trafficking.
They have a code for people that they take in, As or Bs.
We just thought, okay, heres how we might get to it.
And for more Walking Dead intel, follow Dalton on Twitter@DaltonRoss.
