[The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 10, episode 13]
The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang talks about Michonne’s discoveries in the latest episode and teases that they lead into the Rick Grimes movie. The original Walking Dead show that premiered on AMC in 2010 was a bit of an unlikely success story as it grew from a cult hit into the biggest scripted series on TV. Thanks to the show’s unexpected smash hit status, plans soon went into motion to expand from one series into an entire franchise.
Those plans resulted of course in the first spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead, and will lead to a second spinoff series The Walking Dead: World Beyond later this year (the show’s premiere was recently delayed due to the coronavirus). Eventually, there will also be a movie centered on Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes, who exited the flagship series in mysterious fashion in season 9. Setting the stage for that movie was indeed a major part of this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, which sees Michonne discovering evidence that Rick is still alive and beginning a quest to find him, and later stumbling upon a massive caravan of survivors marching toward the horizon.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
Speaking to Insider, TWD showrunner Kang discussed Michonne’s discoveries and how they help play into the next stage of building out the franchise’s world, which includes the Rick Grimes movie. Kang said that before the latest episode was written she coordinated with TWD universe overseer Scott Gimple over the “end point” she needed to reach in order to set up the next part of the story. Kang also discussed how writers approached Michonne’s discoveries about Rick:
“One thing that emerged early on as feeling critically important to all of us on the writing side as well as Danai was the idea of concrete evidence of Rick’s presence and a direction to go in. The boots are an iconic part of Rick’s costume, would’ve been on his person at the time of the bridge explosion, and would be immediately recognizable to Michonne, so that’s how we came to have this first clue.”
In addition to Rick’s boots, Michonne also discovers a phone with doodles of herself and Judith drawn on it along with some Chinese characters. Kang now confirms that the characters spell “Believe a little bit longer,” definitely a message from Rick to Michonne (Rick clearly was convinced that Michonne would come looking for him and had enough faith in her tenacity to leave this message, though on the episode she’s not even looking for him when she happens upon the boat with the boots and phone on it). As well as setting up the bigger story to come, the episode represents a farewell to Michonne, as Danai Gurira exits the original series eight years after coming aboard in season 2.
As of now, specific details are hard to come by regarding the Rick Grimes movie this is all surely setting up, but it’s presumed Jadis will appear and indeed actress Pollyanna McIntosh has hinted she is involved. Where Rick is now is anyone’s guess, but there could be more clues in the upcoming World Beyond spinoff, which at the very least is expected to reveal more about the show’s long-simmering CRM mystery. It now seems relatively certain that Gurira will appear in the Rick Grimes movie as well, though that is yet to be confirmed.
And where does all this leave the original Walking Dead? Michonne is gone, but the show continues on, with three more episodes left in season 10. The loss of Michonne is certainly a major one as she was one of the best characters left on a series that’s running short of good characters, but using her as the bridge to the next phase of the story was a natural move, and Gurira obviously was ready to leave anyway. As for the larger TWD universe promised by the latest episode, the tease would certainly have been more effective five years ago when the show was still at the height of its popularity. Now, the move feels a little desperate, as The Walking Dead clings to relevance in the face of sagging ratings.
Source: Insider
