It's been an interesting couple of years for The Walking Dead Universe. The franchise has carried on beyond the original series (which just celebrated its 15th anniversary), telling new stories via short spinoffs that have been allowed to be even more adventurous than it was. Better yet, original TWD characters have returned for these specific stories.
Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride have headlined Daryl Dixon, Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star in Dead City, and Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira made their triumphant comeback to the TWD saga in miniseries The Ones Who Live after six years. The latter two made that return after a lengthy wait, and fans thought it might never happen at one point in time. But it did, and it was glorious.
That particular spinoff may have ran for just one season, but the possibilities are endless in a franchise like this one - especially with Daryl Dixon and Dead City still ongoing. And with the TWD Universe seemingly set to enter a new era, some of those possibilities could be on the horizon. In fact, one star just recently confirmed that the return we've all waited for could be on the horizon.
Andrew Lincoln's recent Rick Grimes tease promises a multitude of possibilities
Andrew Lincoln recently confirmed that we could be seeing Rick Grimes back on our screens in the not-too-distant future. As we reported when he made the revelation, he teased fans with a potential comeback in an interview to promote his new play The Lady From The Sea. Sitting down with Laura Kuensserg on BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he was asked about whether he would ever return to the franchise and offered up the response that sent the TWD fandom into meltdown: "Yeah, well, there’s a conversation happening right now."
It's probably going to be a while before there is any follow-up from the franchise as to where or when that potential return could take place, but the idea that there is a conversation about it happening - after Rick and Michonne's story seemingly got wrapped up in the series finale of The Ones Who Live is very promising indeed. Fans genuinely weren't sure whether they would see Lincoln reprise the role ever again, but now it's back on the table it seems.
The spinoff's series finale saw Rick and Michonne finally make their way back to Alexandria after years away. Lincoln had departed The Walking Dead after five episodes of its ninth season when Rick seemingly died on the bridge after an explosion destroyed a horde of walkers. But after being captured by the Civic Republic Military, he recovered and spent years carrying out orders for them, unable to return home. Michonne eventually discovered that he was alive and tracked him down. Upon reuniting and taking down the CRM from within, they returned home to reunite with daughter Judith and son RJ.
The miniseries was able to wrap up one of the loose threads that the original series simply couldn't. Although Lincoln and Gurira did make brief cameos in the final episode of The Walking Dead, those were designed to set up the spinoff series - meaning that their story had to continue. It did, and it reached a satisfying conclusion when they made their way back home. But as there is still more story for this franchise to tell, there are more ways to involve the pair.
Rick should return in the series finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
There are multiple ways that a return from Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes could work in The Walking Dead franchise, but there is one that should happen more than the others. That is having him appear in the final episode of ongoing spinoff The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.
We know that the Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride-led spinoff will conclude with its fourth and final season, so it would be only fitting if the most recognizable figure in the whole franchise were to make an appearance in its last episode - especially as there is real story scope for that to happen.
Daryl and Carol have been in Europe throughout the series, starting in France and ending up in both London and Spain. They aren't currently in any of the locations that The Walking Dead made famous, meaning that Rick and Michonne very easily could have returned to Alexandria in the days that they were away, while also learning about the Commonwealth. The show did tease us with that potential when Carol told Daryl over the radio that "he came back" in the first season. It unfortunately back-tracked on that when the pair reunited in the second season, which didn't go down too well with fans. But what if Carol has simply been keeping this information to herself all along, hoping to surprise Daryl when he gets home.
Although Norman Reedus cast doubt on whether that might happen, a Rick and Daryl reunion is still highly possible considering that Daryl Dixon is currently filming its final season. Lincoln's recent comments about a potential return could refer to conversations about guest-starring in the final season of the spinoff.
While there is also scope for him to appear in Dead City at some point, that show's setting in 2029 places it sx years ahead of the current TWD timeline - meaning that Maggie and Negan likely already know that Rick returned years beforehand. So any appearance from him might have much less of an emotional impact than it would if he and Michonne were to reunite with Daryl and Carol in Daryl Dixon.
Rick and Daryl have a long-standing bond and fans have been begging to see the two reunite on-screen. For years, Daryl has thought that his best friend might be dead, and he hoped that he might get some answers when out on the journey that ultimately led to France. There would be no better way to end the show than to have him see that Rick came back after all this time. It simply wouldn't get more satisfying than that.