Throughout its 11-season run on AMC, The Walking Dead introduced many memorable characters. However, none stood taller or carried more weight than Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) when it came to central figures who really drove the story. As the leader of a constantly shifting group of survivors, Rick faced many impossible choices and life-or-death situations.
But in the comic book series, Rick's intense journey took an even more brutal turn when he suffered a severe injury. In Issue #28, Rick and his group find themselves captured by the Governor and questioned about their safe haven. Rick attempts to protect his group by not being upfront about their living circumstances, but this only angers the Governor, who then violently retaliates by cutting off Rick’s right hand. From then on, Rick would have to learn how to live, fight, and lead with this major disability. He would even start using a prosthetic hand eventually.
However, this whole ordeal never actually happened in the television series adaptation. The showrunners chose to keep Rick physically intact throughout the entire show. Why is that?
Rick didn't lose his hand in The Walking Dead due to budgetary concerns
At New York Comic-Con 2017, Lincoln confessed to the press that he wanted to see Rick lose his hand in the show. According to Business Insider, Lincoln then went on to say that the scene hadn’t been filmed due to the cost and complexity it would create for the show’s special effects team.
"All that happens is the special effects department just starts sucking their teeth [like], 'That's gonna cost a lot of money to do.'" - Andrew Lincoln
In 2014, comic creator Robert Kirkman even gave his input during an interview on SundanceTV’s The Writer's Room. He explained that having Rick without a hand in the TV series would be "impossible." Because Rick is the main character and involved in almost every action scene, Kirkman believed that adapting this particular storyline from the comics for the live-action series would create major practical challenges and increase production costs significantly.
"It would add a huge complication to the TV series, and probably a lot more money to the budget, especially since Rick is the main character and involved in many action scenes." - Robert Kirkman
While comic book fans never got to see Rick lose his hand on-screen in the original series, it does eventually happen in the spinoff, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. In the first episode of the spinoff series, Rick tries to escape the CRM during an operation.
To free himself from a chain attached to his hand, he makes the drastic decision to chop off his own hand with an axe. But despite his determination and bravery, blood loss and nearby walkers prevent him from fully escaping, and the CRM recaptures him. It's also worth mentioning that the hand Rick chops off is his left hand instead of his right.
In the end, fans got to witness Rick endure this brutal moment after all, albeit in a different series and with changes from the original comic storyline.
The Walking Dead is available to stream on Netflix.