Ok, normally I don't come on boards to complain, but I wanted other opinions: why write out the main character, who still has living family (Judith and arguably Michonne), by making him go somewhere else basically against his will? This makes no sense, as he clearly would try to get back to his people as soon as he is able! Leaving him alive just begs the question of why, after a time jump of five or six years, has Rick never tried to get back?
shareMaybe it will be explained in next episode? Andrew is listed to be in six episodes of S9 and there has only been five. For all we know he DID come back at some point and just died from other reasons during the timeskip.
shareThat's why they are making 3 movies with him
shareBasically it all boils down to the fact that AL was tired of spending so much time in the USA and wanted to spend more time with his family in the UK. He initially asked to leave expecting to be killed off and they were preparing to kill him off.
But sometime around S8 Gimple and the powers that be at AMC started putting together all these ideas of expanding the Walking Dead universe..and then it occurred to them that maybe Andrew Lincoln could be part of this expansion by creating these films where he could either be away from home a lot less...or maybe even film in the UK.
AL agreed with their plans. And an alive Rick seemed likely to piss off less people with the added bonus of making him part of this franchise that they are determined to milk dry even as they keep people hanging on.
How they are going to make sense of Rick's absence for so many years is anyone's guess at this point. My guess is it isn't that easy for him to return home and we'll have a trilogy of these films to show us the whys and the hows even as the show moves forward without him.
How they'll synchronize it all seems very challenging to me. It would seem at some point they would all be reunited but that also seems a long way off.
My thoughts exactly. The only thing I don't really understand - why are they not trying to hit the box office with these? That seems right up their alley. Why air them on the network? Are there some legal aspects that I don't get that would make that an impossibility, or do they think it just wouldn't do well enough, or what? I know ratings have declined, and many of us bash the show (most of the time, rightfully so), but there is still a loyal fan base of several million.
shareI think a theatrical release would be a bad idea. It would take a bigger budget and more time involved and would be riskier.
Isn't TWD sort of a niche market?
They might do something like a pay-per-view I guess but I think the main thing is to try to strike while the iron is hot,,,,which is going to be difficult anyway with the parent show continuing dead ahead on its path and these plans for a trilogy which should, at some point, converge with the series.
They can't ignore the fact that Rick has family that he's going to want to reunite with.
Otherwise they also have ideas of other films or tv shows in that universe.
I don't know if their grand design can even work at this point but it'll be interesting seeing what they have in mind.
I was just thinking that with Rick going to an entirely new place, and these films supposedly, not necessarily tying back into the show directly (they claim that was Rick's last episode, granted they are full of shit sometimes), that it kinda opens the door for bigger stars/actors to appear in them. Actors that don't want to do TV, but would love to pop in for a movie or two. I just thought that might bring a bigger bang, money wise.
shareI don't know..I'm not that impressed with theatrical films these days and there's very few actors that wouldn't be drawn to the right project on cable or premium channels. But I don't see any A list actors that would be drawn to TWD anyway.
Maybe you're thinking of all the other franchises of super heroes and Star Wars..etc..Some have done well and some have not but I think it would be a little over confident for them to go that route right off the bat. If they fail it could kill the whole idea.
And, in the end, if Rick doesn't want to return or attempt to be returning to his family I don't think that the character would make sense as being Rick. They have to have some kind of plans down the road for them to reunite.
"I'm not that impressed with theatrical films these days"
That makes two of us.
"They have to have some kind of plans down the road for them to reunite."
I really hope so. It'll be one of the biggest missed opportunities if they don't, especially if the movies do well.