The Walking Dead producer and AMC executive Scott Gimple have confirmed that the fan-favorite iconic character Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, is not going anywhere rather the character will soon be seen across three feature-length television movies to premiere on AMC, with the first going into production next year.

Gimple, who is currently writing the first of the untitled series of films, announced the news on Talking Dead on Sunday. He confirmed Rick will not appear again on The Walking Dead series, reported The Wrap. The show aired immediately after Lincoln’s last episode of The Walking Dead series.

“This is not a trick,” Gimple said. “This is the end of Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead. This is not going to be the end of Rick Grimes’ story. We’re going to continue telling Rick Grimes’ story in a series of AMC original films. There’s a lot of story to tell.”

According to Gimple, the films will feature Grimes as well as various other characters from The Walking Dead. They will not be direct adaptations from The Walking Dead comics. The films will tell an original Rick Grimes story and have beefed-up production values.

“It’s going to show a different situation that Rick is involved in. These are going to be shown on AMC, but they are going to have the scope of featured films,” Gimple said, promising an “epic story told over years.”

In a pre-taped interview that featured on The Talking Dead show, Lincoln said the upcoming films will tell a much bigger story.

“It’s not the beginning of the end, it’s the end of the beginning,” the Rick Grimes actor said. “And I like the idea that we get to tell a bigger story, maybe with a sort of wider vista.”

Although no release date has yet been announced for the first of the three Rick Grimes-focused films, it is expected that the film will begin production sometime in early 2019.

Source: The Wrap