Andrew Lincoln teases The Walking Dead movies and potential return to the main TV series

Andrew Lincoln in Walking Dead
(Image credit: AMC)

It's been over a decade since the Walking Dead series – an adaption of Robert Kirkman's popular comic series – premiered on AMC. Since then, several spin-offs and films have either made their debuts or have entered development. 

Andrew Lincoln, who has been there from the start, departed the mainline Walking Dead series during its ninth season. Since then, there have been plans to create three Walking Dead movies to explore his character Rick's future. In a recent interview, our sister publication SFX Magazine caught up with Lincoln and asked him about production on the upcoming Walking Dead films. 

"I’m not filming at the moment," he says. "I’m still very much in lockdown. We’re very excited about how, at the first available opportunity, we’re going to go into production – there’s talk of it being spring. I can’t wait to get those cowboy boots."

It sounds like filming should be ramping up soon, so Lincoln can put those boots to work, but there is a possibility his character could make an appearance in the upcoming final series before the movie. 

"That’s a very good question," he replies when asked about Rick returning to the main show. "The easy answer is I have no idea. I don’t think it’s written yet, but I would never say never to that because everybody that’s still doing the TV show are dear friends, and it’s an extraordinary feat that they’re still going and making this beautiful and ground-breaking show that still resonates with the world."

And don't worry, you will get more Lincoln in the future regardless. 

"I have signed for more than one film," he continues. "I am a producer on it. I will not be directing, because I don’t like watching myself, so that would be a self-defeating exercise. It would just be the most painful... yeah, it just wouldn’t happen! All of those answers will hopefully be resolved in the next couple of months but, yes, there’s more than one. We need to get the first one absolutely right and that’s why it’s taken longer than we anticipated – and obviously with the pandemic. I can’t wait. I’m really excited about broadening the scale and scope of the story and finding out where Rick is."

As we wait to see how Rick Grimes's story plays out in those upcoming films, the flagship Walking Dead series is set to conclude in 2022, with AMC already ordering a spin-off series that will focus on characters Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier set to premiere in 2023. 

You can check out the full interview with Lincoln in the current issue of SFX Magazine, which features Jupiter's Legacy on the cover. For more from SFX, make sure to sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.

Stephanie is a comic book historian and pop culture critic for publications including SYFYFANGRRLS, Marvel, The A.V. Club, Nerdist, Den of Geek, and Rotten Tomatoes. Stephanie is also a comic creator with three ongoing webcomics, Parenthood Activate!, But What If Though?, and Living Heroes. She made her Marvel debut with a short story featuring Monica Rambeau in Marvel’s Voices: Legacy. She recently made her DC Comics debut in Wonder Woman Black and Gold #2 and is co-writing the Nubia and the Amazons miniseries.

Read more
Rick and Michonne in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
The Walking Dead boss looks to squash hopes of The Ones Who Live season 2 – though that doesn't mean we won't ever see Rick and Michonne again
Andrew Lincoln as Rick in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
Netflix just added the highest rated Walking Dead spin-off for you to binge
Andrew Lincoln as Rick in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
How to watch The Walking Dead franchise in order (release and chronological)
Lauren Cohan as Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan in The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2
The Walking Dead: Dead City promises "higher stakes" season 2, as AMC reveals opening two minutes and release date
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2
First trailer for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 sees Maggie fight a bear, Hershel plot revenge, and Negan give Lucille a terrifying upgrade
Alan Ritchson in Reacher season 3
Reacher's Alan Ritchson shares his hopes for the future of the Prime Video series ahead of season 4: "We're going to continue to honor the fact that Reacher really is a lone wolf"
Latest in Horror Shows
Linda Cardellini as Laura Barton in Hawkeye
Linda Cardellini cast as Jason's mom, the original Friday the 13th killer, for Crystal Lake prequel series
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2
First trailer for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 sees Maggie fight a bear, Hershel plot revenge, and Negan give Lucille a terrifying upgrade
Kaitlyn Dever as Abby in The Last Of Us season 2
The Last of Us showrunner says newcomer Kaitlyn Dever was "within The Last of Us DNA" before the show existed
Clicker and Ellie
The Last of Us season 2 trailer brings the heart and the horror back to Joel and Ellie
Rick and Michonne in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
The Walking Dead boss looks to squash hopes of The Ones Who Live season 2 – though that doesn't mean we won't ever see Rick and Michonne again
The Last of Us season 2 first look
The Last of Us season 2 will tell "a different version" of the story, but Neil Druckmann loves the changes they've made: "Its DNA is in there"
Latest in News
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"