Although The Walking Dead TV series came to an end in 2022, AMC had two new spinoffs ready to go in 2023: The Walking Dead: Dead City and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. However, out of all of The Walking Dead spinoffs, only The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is wrapping up a lingering plotline from the primary show. And now that The Walking Dead‘s sixth spinoff is just around the corner, we’re sharing everything we know about The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
What happened to Rick Grimes?
In 2018, Andrew Lincoln left The Walking Dead after nine seasons of the hit series. But rather than killing off Lincoln’s character, Rick Grimes, he was instead grievously wounded. To save Rick’s life, and secure her own escape, Jadis Stokes (Pollyanna McIntosh) contacted an unknown faction, who spirited both of them away via a helicopter.
Lincoln’s co-star, Danai Gurira, also decided to leave the show in 2020 during the show’s tenth season. Since Gurira’s character, Michonne Hawthorne, was in a romance with Rick, she was written out of the series after discovering clues that Rick had survived his ordeal. In order to pursue this lead, Michonne sent a message to her adoptive daughter, Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming), and her son with Rick, R.J. Grimes (Antony Azor), before heading out to bring Rick home.
Wasn’t this supposed to be a movie?
Actually, it was supposed to be three movies! On the night of Lincoln’s final episode of The Walking Dead, it was announced that he would reprise his role in a trilogy of feature films. Similarly, when Gurira left the series, she was reportedly set to co-star in the movies as well.
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, the movies stalled in development, and The Walking Dead‘s creative team decided to move forward with The Ones Who Live as a miniseries instead of a film trilogy.
Who kidnapped Rick, and why do they want him?
Subsequent episodes of Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond revealed that Jadis’ group is called the Civic Republic Military. Out of all of the survivor factions to emerge since the zombie apocalypse, the Civic Republic appears to be the only one that still has military helicopters and fuel to fly them.
World Beyond established that Jadis was in a leadership position within the CRM. That series also shed light on why Rick was taken. CRM was looking for test subjects to unwillingly take part in experiments designed to find a cure for the zombie plague. However, Jadis spared Rick from that fate by labeling him as someone who was willing to fight.
Who else is starring in The Ones Who Live?
McIntosh is reprising her role as Jadis for the miniseries. Lost veteran Terry O’Quinn is playing Major General Beale, one of the CRM’s military leaders. Lesley-Ann Brandt and Matthew August Jeffers will also appear as Pearl Thorne and Nat, respectively. But for the moment, we don’t know much about their characters.
Is there a trailer for The Ones Who Live?
Yes. And The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live trailer deliberately withholds any scenes that feature Rick and Michonne together, presumably to save their reunion for the show itself.
The trailer is light on story details, but it appears that Michonne will make some new allies while searching for Rick. Meanwhile, it looks like the CRM is trying to make Rick into one of their fighters, even though he only wants to return to his family.
When will The Ones Who Live premiere?
AMC will premiere The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live on Sunday, February 25.
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