The Walking Dead now exists as a loosely connected network of spin-off shows, and one of them recently starred the man himself, Andrew Lincoln, returning as Rick Grimes to escape captivity and reunite with his family.
Empire has a new interview up with Andrew Lincoln where he reflects on his time on the show, where most interestingly, he comments on the most controversial plot turn in the history of the series:
“I do still think [Glenn’s death] might have been when we over-egged the omelette,” he said. “Maybe it was lingering too much.”
The season 5 premiere where Glenn was killed was the peak of the series in terms of viewership, as 17 million viewers tuned. But it lost two million viewers the next week, and years later, the show was doing barely 1.5 million views a season. The series finale was 2.2 million.
It was a “high” in that sense, but a low in others. I have been covering this show for a decade and Glenn’s death is routinely brought up as the reason many viewers quit the show. And also the way it was done was an issue. Not in terms of just the gore, but the season 4 cliffhanger and the fake-out kill of Abraham, rubbed many the wrong way.
Yes, Glenn dies in almost the exact same way as in a key moment in the comics, but among other changes to the source material and deaths that were avoided (Carol was supposed to die incredibly early for one, Daryl didn’t even exist) this felt like one where they needed to read the room about how poorly this would be received. I’d argue it also hamstrung Maggie’s character as it became her entire personality for years after, and she wasn’t given enough else to do other than be mad at Negan. That’s still happening to this day in their spin-off show, Dead City.
The interview, at least the pieces of it that are online, does not seem to go into the details of why exactly Andrew Lincoln surprisingly left the series before its final seasons, though reportedly it was to spend more time with his family who lived overseas. But he returned for The Ones Who Live to give him and Michonne a concluding chapter. While Dead City and Daryl Dixon are getting second seasons, there has been no word on a second season of the presumed miniseries The Ones Who Live, or Rick returning in any other capacity besides this. I still miss him, though.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
