Why The Walking Dead Movies Never Happened

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At one point in the mid-2010s, "The Walking Dead" was the biggest show on cable television. More than that, the zombie series, which was based on Robert Kirkman's Image Comics title of the same name, had generated an entire multimedia franchise. AMC struck gold, and the network was looking to capitalize in a big way around 2018, making the jump from the big screen to the small screen.

In November 2018, it was confirmed that Andrew Lincoln would headline a trilogy of "Walking Dead" movies centered on Rick Grimes. These were intended as big-budget features that would expand the scope of the franchise in a big, bad way. "The Walking Dead" chief content officer Scott M. Gimple had this to say about the ambitious project at the time of its announcement:

"The story of Rick will go on in films. Right now, we're working on three but there's flexibility in that ... over the next several years, we're going to be doing specials, new series are quite a possibility, high-quality digital content and then some content that defies description at the moment. We're going to dig into the past and see old characters. We're going to introduce new characters and new situations."

Those movies never came to pass. Lincoln left "The Walking Dead" in season 9, setting up the story that the movies would have followed. So, what happened with the movies, exactly? Why did AMC cancel them? The answer is complicated in that circumstances beyond the network's control came into play. It's also, in the end, somewhat simple in that the nature of the business changed, rendering the idea infeasible.

"The Walking Dead" ratings peaked with season 7 in 2016. Rather notably, the movies weren't even announced until 2018, two seasons later in the show's run. That was arguably the first issue. The bigger issue came later, and it was one that went far beyond any individual network's problems. It was an industry-wide, once-in-a-generation disaster.

The COVID-19 pandemic arrived in early 2020 and shut down movie theaters all over the world. That, first and foremost, put the future of movies as a larger concern in doubt. It also forced Hollywood to double down on streaming, with AMC going all-in on AMC+, with the "Walking Dead" franchise becoming a pillar of that particular streaming play. Hence, the movies kind of quietly died as a result of what was going on in the business at that time.

"It really was a question of just time, circumstance, the world changing immediately. And ultimately, some things changed in a remarkable way," Gimple explained to Screen Rant in 2024. Series writer, executive producer, and director Greg Nicotero, speaking on the "Talking Strange" podcast, explained how it went down behind the scenes. As he explained:

"Several iterations of the [movie] script flew around and it just ended up not coming to fruition. The idea of doing a Rick Grimes show popped up a year and a half ago probably. I don't think anybody really thought it was gonna happen. Lo' and behold, as we get closer we start realizing, 'Look, if we're not going to do the movies then maybe there's a show there.'"

Indeed, as Nicotero suggested, AMC decided to turn the would-be movies into a TV miniseries instead. "The Walking Dead" series that brought back Lincoln as Rick was first announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022. What's more, the show would bring back Danai Gurira as Michonne to help finish the story between these characters. "We owe you the conclusion of this story of Rick and Michonne," Gurira said at SDCC.

Lincoln added, "There's going to be six episodes on AMC+ airing in 2023. This time next year, there's going to be a whole lot more to talk about...I personally can't wait to get my cowboy boots back on."

Indeed, "The Walking Dead" ended its 11 season run in 2022 and left several threads dangling. Most notably, the Rick and Michonne of it all. This show, which premiered in 2024 under the name "The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live," answered those questions. With six episodes to its name, AMC essentially told the story they were going to tell in the movies on TV instead. One could look at it as two episodes per movie.

Whether or not this was better for fans of the franchise is up for debate. It's impossible to know what the movies would have looked like, but it did feel too little, too late, even in 2018. On the flip side, the response to "The Ones Who Live" was largely very positive, offering fans a conclusion they had long wanted to see. So it all worked out, just not as originally planned.

You can grab "The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live" on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.