For years, The Walking Dead was defined mainly by its main characters. There are plenty of characters we could call main, but the ones we all think of first are Rick, Daryl, and probably Michonne, played by Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, and Danai Gurira.
While there are plenty of other stars in the main cast, I’ve always felt The Walking Dead revolved around those three for a long time, so much so that Rick and Michonne became a couple in season 6, and Daryl… well, he just survived until the very end.
But in season 9, Rick was “killed” off, only for the episode to reveal at the end that he was taken up in a helicopter to an unknown location. For a time, we thought that this meant we would get Rick movies, but those never panned out. Eventually, it became the miniseries that we all love and enjoy.
However, The Walking Dead made a major mistake keeping Rick away for too long—and for two big reasons.
Rick’s disappearance was interesting, but it faded once the Whisperers arrived
The thing is, in The Walking Dead, most people accepted that Rick was dead, except Daryl and Michonne, who kept looking for him. That was a key part of their personalities after Rick’s last episode, “What Comes After.” But as season 9 progressed, we saw less and less of this and more focus on the next Walking Dead villain.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the villains are a part of what makes The Walking Dead such a fun show to watch. However, because Rick was left in the dust, people stopped caring. While the show improved in quality at the end of season 9 and even in the first half of season 10, it wasn’t quite the same.
The Rick movies were announced right after his last episode, and they wouldn’t be the last time people saw him. There was no guarantee he would ever show up again, but the hype around him potentially returning as a tease for the films lasted for a bit.
But engagement slowly dwindled, and when the season ended without any hint of Rick Grimes or any tie-in to the movie's plot, fans began to lose interest.
It’s not like The Walking Dead hadn’t been losing ratings for some time. There was a steep drop-off after Glenn (Steven Yeun) died, and then people were (understandably) upset about Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) death. But Rick’s death felt like a “gotcha” moment for the audience waiting for their payout, and when it didn’t come, they left.
Even when Rick returned, it wasn’t the same show—and most fans were gone.
Keeping Rick away for so long in the franchise, until The Ones Who Live released in 2024, was a major oopsie on AMC’s part. Granted, the show still has a fanbase; we’re the people who watch The Walking Dead spinoffs, but it would never be the same with Rick on the show.
Then, a year and a half after the mainline series finally ended, they released this drama series. It was great, and it tied up much of Rick’s story compared with the other tales going on in the spinoffs. But it’s a miniseries, not the same show, and a lot of people were tired of jumping between so many different TV series to see what happened to their favorite characters.
Teasing Rick at the very end of The Walking Dead finale felt like AMC was rubbing salt in the wound. It was like, “Oh, you want to see him more in the mainline show before it ends? Here’s a little tease of him, but you’ll only be able to watch him in this OTHER spinoff we have planned. Those Rick movies? They don’t exist anymore. It’s just this series.”
Again, I enjoyed the show, but I didn’t like the backhandedness, and AMC could have done better. Because they waited so long, far fewer people tuned in to watch this drama series. This could have been a huge storyline in the mainline show if they'd kept it. They would have brought ratings up like crazy. Instead, we got it as a miniseries. That doesn’t feel right.
Either way, it’s a shame we’ll never really see Rick again unless we get that Daryl reunion we’ve all been craving. But until then, we have to wait and see.
You can watch all 11 seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix.
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