Although he plays the show's main character, Rick Grimes, actor Andrew Lincoln will be leaving AMC's The Walking Dead sometime in the midst of the upcoming ninth season. The network is even already promoting the fact that "Rick Grimes' Final Episodes" are on the way. But whatever happens to Rick Grimes, however that character is going to be written out of the show, his exit isn't going to mark the end of Lincoln's association with The Walking Dead.
Lincoln has finished his work on season 9 and is now spending time with his family, but he revealed to Entertainment Weekly that he'll be returning to the set of The Walking Dead soon so he can study how an episode is directed… because he wants to direct an episode himself next season.
I'm going back to shadow a director, and my intention is to direct next year. I can't be that far away because I can't bear it. That's how much I am invested in the show and the continuation of the story."
As a Walking Dead actor taking on directing duties, he will be following in the footsteps of Fear the Walking Dead's Colman Domingo, who recently directed an episode of that show, and Lincoln's former co-star Michael Cudlitz. Cudlitz's character Abraham was killed off in the first episode of The Walking Dead's seventh season, but he came back to the set to direct a season 9 episode.
The new season of The Walking Dead will begin airing on AMC on October 7th. The episode Cudlitz directed, titled Stradivarius, is scheduled to air on November 18th.
It's good to know that Lincoln isn't going to be cutting The Walking Dead out of his life entirely, and the fact that he'll be returning to the set from time to time gives me some hope that Rick Grimes won't just be killed. Maybe he'll leave on some kind of pilgrimage so the show can check in on him occasionally.