Even the dead are excited about this one!
Andrew Lincoln‘s Rick Grimes and Danai Gurira‘s Michonne—better known online as #Richonne—are finally back on our screens after leaving The Walking Dead (and us), respectively in 2018 and 2020. Where have they been? Who are they now? Why haven’t they found one another yet? Well, we could tell you the answers to all of that, but then it would spoil the thrill of watching The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live and this is one spinoff you’re gonna want to go into without too much intel.
What we can tell you is that coming back to the Dead-iverse was not so scary for the stars. “I like the sheriff, man. I miss the sheriff,” admits Lincoln, who co-created the six-episode tale with Gurira and current TWD overlord Scott Gimple. “I left [the show] in a helicopter, and people kept stopping me on the street, saying ‘Where are you? When are you coming back?’ So I felt an obligation to the fans.”
Not only that, Lincoln wanted to “finish the story,” as he puts it. Joined by Gurira and new cast mates Terry O’Quinn (Lost), Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer), Craig Tate (I’m a Virgo) and Matthew Jeffers (New Amsterdam) at the Television Critics Association’s winter press event in Pasadena, Lincoln readily confessed that “it was a thrill to finish the final chapter.”
Gene Page/AMC
For Gurira, it was a return to form for her formidable character, who has been hunting for her lost love ever since her TWD exit. “She’s looking for him… There is no way he died on that bridge, she’s gotta go look.” It’s that drive, matched with the fact that viewers had more time with her following Lincoln’s departure, that makes Michonne “kind of a guide for the audience” into the new show. And in true Michonne style, she is up to the task.
“She comes across a lot of obstacles,” continues Gurira. “Some great obstacles. Some astounding friendships are made. But at the same time, there are blockages that are stopping her from getting to him.”
Were you able to figure out from the video above which of the newbies are gonna be helps or hindrances to Richonne’s happy ending?
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Series Premiere, Sunday, February 25, 9/8c, AMC
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
