This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premiere
Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes is back in the sixth spinoff in The Walking Dead series, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Lincoln exited the original series after its ninth season in 2018 but returned for the series finale in 2022. He assumed the role of executive producer and co-creator in the new series, which also meant that he could finally realize his wish for a major scene for his character.
The original series was based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. At one point in the comics, Rick Grimes’ hand is chopped off by the Governor, which never happened on TV until now.
Andrew Lincoln Finally Gets To Film One Brutal Rick Grimes Scene
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is set after the series finale of the original series and stars the returning actors Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, and Pollyanna McIntosh. Lincoln and Gurira along with writer Scott M. Gimple created this spinoff series for AMC and it premiered on February 25, 2024. The series premiere has hooked the audience right off the bat with one crucial scene from the comics.
In the comics by Robert Kirkman and co., Lincoln’s character Rick Grimes loses his hand in issue 28 after he refuses to answer the Governor’s questions during an interrogation. If the series were to place this scene exactly according to the comics, it would have been featured in season 3 of The Walking Dead. However, the original show didn’t opt for the brutal scene, giving Rick both his hands until the show’s end.
However, Andrew Lincoln has finally convinced the franchise to execute his character’s brutal hand-chopping scene. Lincoln earlier shared at the New York Comic Con in 2017 that he had been asking the original show to add one of the biggest Rick Grimes moments from the comics. He shared, “That is the one thing that I have been campaigning for for a long time, for them to chop my arm off.” (via Business Insider).
The new spinoff’s creator, Scott M. Gimple, shared with EW that the push to finally chop off Rick’s hands came from Lincoln. Gimple shared with EW:
“I played around with the idea but didn’t commit to it through all sorts of iterations of the story. But it was Andy that pushed it. Andy was the one to bring it across the goal line.”
The former King County Sheriff’s deputy loses his hand just moments into the premiere of The Ones Who Live. However, the character carries out Lincoln’s wish on his own terms. The amputation is a necessary sacrifice he has to make to free himself from an authoritarian military system that has put him on a leash. The chopping of his hands may finally lead him to reunite with Michonne, played by Gurira, and his kids.
Andrew Lincoln Had To Convince A Lot Of People To Include The Scene
Andrew Lincoln felt that the addition of the scene justified Rick’s character arc and why he had been missing all these years. The character had a “never quit” attitude and the series had to explain why he never attempted to return to his family if he was alive. Therefore, he had to make the ultimate sacrifice to achieve that goal. However, it wasn’t easy for Lincoln to convince everyone to get on board with the idea. Lincoln had several conversations with AMC before he could add the scene. He told EW:
“I just bullied everybody into submission. And there were quite a lot of conversations, particularly with AMC, with people going, ‘Now Andy, we love the idea, but are you really sure about this?’ But I just thought: This is the time to do what the comic book did and honor that. I’ve been trying to pitch this for years, and everybody was just shouting me down.”
The scene also works in terms of capturing the attention of the audience, who are starting to get tired of the numerous outings from the franchise. The premiere episode suggests that these audiences will be staying around since it had much better pacing and more creative energy than the latter seasons of The Walking Dead. The new series premiere is now available for streaming on AMC+.
