The Walking Dead: Three different ways to write off Rick Grimes

With the news breaking that Andrew Lincoln will be leaving The Walking Dead during Season 9, his character Rick Grimes will need to be written off. But how?

The end if finally drawing near for The Walking Dead hero Rick Grimes.

As has been reported everywhere, Andrew Lincoln will be saying goodbye to his years-long stint as Rick on the AMC zombie series. Serving as the “main” character since the very first episode, the show will obviously never be the same again following his departure. But with Norman Reedus taking the lead, the show will continue to live on (for now), meaning the creative team will need to figure out how to remove Rick from the show.

Here are three possible ways AMC could write Lincoln out of the series…

Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead, courtesy of Gene Page/AMC

1. KILL OFF RICK GRIMES

We’ll go head and get the obvious and easy one out of the way first. Ultimately, knowing how this show works, this will be the most likely route The Walking Dead takes with ending Rick’s run on the show. With the news of Lincoln’s exit, I think we’re all expecting Rick to die at some point in the first half of Season 9, with the mystery of it being how and when. It won’t be shocking, but if he’s gotta go, hopefully he can be given a death scene which brings some king of satisfying closure to the long and tumultuous journey this character has taken us on for years.

Seann William Scott, photo courtesy of TV Guide

2. RECAST THE ROLE WITH ANOTHER ACTOR

While not a single one of us actually wants to see this happen, it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility. What if, in a creative scramble, AMC determined they couldn’t sacrifice Rick and chose to simply recast Lincoln with, say, Seann William Scott? There does not seem to be a serious chance of this actually happening, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the idea was brought up in the AMC offices.

The Walking Dead, courtesy of AMC

3. RICK RIDES OFF INTO THE SUNSET

You know what would really shock audiences at this point in the series? If Rick Grimes actually lives. With us all expecting Rick to die, what if the character decides he wants to just leave one day? So he packs up and just goes, perhaps not even telling anyone what he’s doing. With Carl and Lori gone and Judith being cared for, Rick decides to just this new life he’s built completely behind him and start over from scratch some place else. An open-ended exit such as this would also open the door for Rick to return for a cameo in a later episode — perhaps the series finale, which may not be too far away.

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We’ll have to wait for Season 9 to see how The Walking Dead decides to handle Lincoln’s exit. Rest assured, for those still watching the series, Rick will be missed. What do you think will happen to him? Keep the conversation going in the comments below.