Almost two years have passed since the character Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) exited AMC's The Walking Dead on a mysterious helicopter. That means it's also been almost two years since we heard that we'll be seeing Rick again in a feature film that's set to receive theatrical distribution from Universal. So where is this movie? Well, it's still in development, but during Skybound Entertainment's recent Skybound Xpo panel, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and executive producer David Alpert both confirmed that it's getting closer and closer to happening.
Kirkman said that the movie is actually benefitting from the pandemic shutdown.
There's tons of stuff going on behind the scenes. I don't want anyone to think that we're just kind of waiting around for this pandemic to end. I would say that, if anything, the pandemic is going to make a lot of movies better. I think the Rick Grimes movie chief among them, just because we're getting a lot more time to cook this thing and make sure it's perfect."
Describing the movie as "something really exciting, really unique, really different", Alpert said,
We're coming along in a big way. We're just in this particular space where we have [to wait]. We can't shoot right now, so that's just the big thing holding us back."
Rick wasn't the only passenger on that helicopter, Pollyanna McIntosh's character Anne was also on board. During a virtual GalaxyCon Live event, McIntosh teased,
I may or may not be doing a Walking Dead film that Andy [Andrew Lincoln] is involved in, playing Rick. Let's see what happens."
While I am interested to find out where Rick and Anne landed after they left The Walking Dead, I feel like they've taken too long to get this movie together. How many viewers are going to care about catching up with Rick at this point?