What Happened to The Walking Dead Movies, and What’s Next for the Zombie Universe?

AMC struck gold when it first adapted The Walking Dead comics line for television, setting the stage for a great many prestige shows to come. A blockbuster on the small screen, AMC wanted to make the most of the brand and its global appeal, so it explored just about every avenue to feed the cravings of fans.

In 2018, The Walking Dead was still riding high, with AMC reportedly having a ten-year plan ready to go for the end of the central show and for several spin-offs. Part of that plan was to pivot to film. Based around putting Andrew Lincoln centre stage again – following his premature exit – those films never came to pass.

So, what happened to the much-hyped The Walking Dead movies?

Circumstances Required a Pivot from the Box Office

To this day, as vast and sprawling as The Walking Dead franchise continues to be across entertainment media, it’s yet to make it to the big screen. The original plans were put in place to ensure a follow-up to a fan-favourite character after the 120th episode of the show, Season 9’s Episode 5, What Comes After.

In this episode, Rick Grimes gets a fake-out death. Around this time, it was announced that the actor, Andrew Lincoln, would return to headline a trilogy of TWD films to tie up the loose ends of what has been the core story of the series. This was because Lincoln couldn’t commit to six months in Georgia each year with his family in the UK.

Circumstances for film and television projects drastically changed around a year after What Comes After aired, effectively cancelling the glut of planned projects. However, AMC was still keen to bring back Lincoln, and so, The Ones Who Live was made. The mini-series followed Michonne’s search for Rick and tied up some loose ends.

Potential for a Cinematic Debut in the Future

The Walking Dead remains a huge focus of AMC, its programming, and its merchandising. They continue to expand the franchise wherever they can. This goes for spin-offs, anthology series, and even into the world of online slots. Across the selection of slots and bingo UK players can find, there are four The Walking Dead games.

The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead 2, The Walking Dead: Cash Collect, and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Slot were all created to meet the demand of the fans. In the past, AMC has also licensed theme park rides, and the setting has expanded into novelisations before, too. Of course, the main exploits remain on TV.

Along with The Ones Who Live, The Walking Dead has most recently been adventuring in the post-apocalyptic landscapes of New York with The Walking Dead: Dead City and Europe in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. The former, as was announced at SDCC earlier this year, is embarking on its fourth and final season.

Dead City, on the other hand, is now renewed for Season 3, but unlike with Daryl Dixon, this announcement wasn’t combined with it being called the last one. So, Season 4 of Dead City is a real possibility. However, with Rick still needing some much-craved reunions and big names still keen to be in TWD, a film might be the way forward.

While The Walking Dead film trilogy that fans were eagerly awaiting was wiped from the slate, given the way that AMC continues to expand their franchise, it seems almost inevitable that they’d be eyeing up a cinematic outing at some point.