The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple says we haven’t seen the last of Richonne, the affectionately-named relationship between Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira). Since the power couple formed in season 6, Rick and Michonne grieved the loss of son Carl (Chandler Riggs) before they ushered in a new beginning together in season 9. But 18 months after they defeated Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors, Rick went missing and was presumed dead in the wake of a bridge explosion. Secretly, a Civic Republic Military helicopter shuttled him away from The Walking Dead — flying him far from Michonne and children Judith (Cailey Fleming) and RJ (Antony Azor).
What comes after that helicopter flight won’t be answered until Rick returns in the Walking Dead films, the likeliest landing point for Michonne following her departure in The Walking Dead season 10.
“We are still working on the movie,” Gimple told ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview about the future of the Walking Dead Universe. “It is proceeding.”
Asked if audiences have seen the last of Richonne, Gimple answered, “I mean, I really don’t think so. I just said we were working on the movies, you asked that question, we’ll leave it at that.”
Gimple teases that viewers “should pay attention to the way that Michonne left the show,” referring to the caravan of migrants that she falls in with at the close of Gurira’s exit episode. After discovering evidence that Rick survived the bridge, Michonne helps a pair of strangers, Aiden (Breeda Wool) and Bailey (Andrew Bachelor), as she heads north in search of answers to bring “the Brave Man” back home.
“There’s something going on there. Yeah, King Bach was there. I’m very grateful to him. We probably haven’t seen the end of him either,” Gimple said, referring to Bachelor. “It was King Bach for a reason. But that was a pretty big group she was with.”
In March, Gimple said it is “definitely fair to assume” that Gurira will rejoin Lincoln in the feature film side of the franchise and that he has “ambitions” for the fan-favorite character. Because AMC’s TWD franchise continues to experiment and expand with mini-series or shorter length series like spinoff The Walking Dead: World Beyond, it’s possible a Gurira-led limited series happens as a bridge to the Rick films.
“With the films, we definitely have plans. But even beyond the current plans, I have some ambitions,” Gimple told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the entertainment industry. “I love her and Rick together, but I love seeing her as the pure lead on her own, too. It just so happens that there’s a lot of story terrain to cover. But you’re right: it’s ambitions. Right now, the plans have to do with the feature film.”
A shooting start or a planned release date for the first untitled Walking Dead movie is TBD. Producers behind the film have confirmed production was impacted by the ongoing pandemic, but Gimple maintains AMC and theatrical partners Universal Pictures are still on course to shepherd the planned trilogy to screen.
The Walking Dead returns with new episodes on February 28, 2021, on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.