A Rick and Michonne spin-off is one of the “turns and twists” that are coming up in the world of The Walking Dead.

Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira surprised everyone by showing up at Comic-Con to talk about a limited series.

 

Even though The Walking Dead’s main show is ending with its eleventh season, there’s still a lot more to watch. Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira showed up as surprise guests at the Walking Dead panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday. They confirmed a long-rumored, highly anticipated spin-off: a limited series for Rick and Michonne that will air on AMC in 2023.

 

Fans have long thought that their stories aren’t over because the drama’s main character, Rick Grimes, didn’t die in a bloody or heroic way like most of the other characters on this long-running show, and because Michonne left the show last season to, well, go make sure he’s still alive. The three original films about Rick that producers had said were in the works will now be replaced by a six-episode limited series with Lincoln and Gurira as both stars and executive producers. Even though they and the other panelists in Hall H didn’t say much, AMC has given us a summary:

 

This series tells an epic love story about two people who have changed because the world has changed. Space kept them apart. By a force that can’t be stopped. By ghosts of who they used to be. Rick and Michonne are thrown into a world where the dead are at war with each other. And in the end, a war against those still alive. Can they find each other and remember who they were in a place and situation that are very different from anything they’ve ever known? Are they at war? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Are they even alive without each other, or will they find out that they, too, are the Walking Dead?

 

Walking Dead fans at Comic-Con got to see two panels right after each other, both of which were led by superfan and Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick. Writers and producers Scott Gimple and Channing Powell were there to show a preview of Tales of the Walking Dead, an anthology series that starts on August 14 and features one-off stories set in the walker apocalypse and starring Terry Crews, Danny Ramirez, Parker Posey, and more. The series’ tagline is “6 Different Stories, 1 Dead World.” Even though the fan-favorite villain now goes by the name Dee, actor Samantha Morton confirmed that Tales will have a prequel story for Alpha, which will not affect the overall timeline of The Walking Dead. Morton made a joke: “Dee is what Alpha was before she became Alpha.” “But she’s also always Alpha, and she’s always there. We are who we are.”

 

Angela Kang, the showrunner for the original Walking Dead series, said that the remaining episodes will be “really emotional” to start off the sad final Comic-Con panel for the show. And there are many surprises.” Cast members like Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Seth Gilliam, Lauren Ridloff, Judy Fleming, and Michael James Shaw were there to make people feel these emotions (read: make them cry).

 

Executive producer Greg Nicotero, who directed many of the series’ first episodes and has returned to helm its conclusion, addressed their hordes of fans: “Directing the finale, I felt all of the weight of the expectation of every person in this room. Everyone got their sleeves rolled up and said, “We owe it to the fans.” We did it.” The Walking Dead will start to stumble toward its end on October 2 on AMC and AMC+.