'The Walking Dead' Without Andrew Lincoln: Norman Reedus And The Show's Director Weigh In
Gene PageAMC
Rachel Tsoumbakos
Last week, fans of The Walking Dead heard the shocking news that lead actor Andrew Lincoln is set to bow out after Season 9 of the hit zombie series. According to the previous Inquisitr article, Andrew Lincoln is quitting because he would like to spend more time making movies. Lincoln wanting to spend more time with his family based in the United Kingdom is also another reason cited for him leaving the show, according to Comic Book.
As filming continues on Season 9 of The Walking Dead, it is likely scripts have already been developed in relation to how Lincoln's character, Rick Grimes, will leave the show. As yet, though, there is no concrete evidence as to how this main character will leave the show. It is also unclear as to whether Lincoln decided to leave before or after his character's son, Carl (Chandler Riggs), was killed off and whether this had anything to do with his decision-making.
Of course, if Lincoln were to have decided to leave before Carl was killed off in Season 8, it would likely have been better not to kill off Carl ahead of Andrew Lincoln's decision to leave, leaving Carl the head of the series.
Featured image credit: Gene PageAMC
While the news of Andrew Lincoln leaving The Walking Dead has still not been officially confirmed by AMC, one of the show's directors has commented on Andrew Lincoln's departure, according to Comic Book. In a post that has since been deleted, long-time The Walking Dead director Michael E. Satrazemis posted the following message to his Instagram account.
"Many of us have spent the last 8 yrs of our lives living, working, creating, high fiving, hugging and sometimes even bleeding real blood with Andy [Lincoln]. All to make something special. He is one of the greatest men I've ever met. And a friend. The show will miss him as much as you. It will be different but it will still be great. All of us who love making [The Walking Dead] keep creating our asses off and sometimes even bleed for you."
The image posted with the message was a shot of Satrazemis with a bloodied Andrew Lincoln from Season 5 of the series.
Along with this now-deleted post from Michael E. Satrazemis, Norman Reedus, who plays fan favorite, Daryl Dixon, and is a friend of Lincoln's, posted the following Instagram post of himself and Andrew Lincoln from the set of The Walking Dead. While he didn't deny or confirm Lincoln's departure from the show, he did caption the image with a single heart emoji.
A post shared by norman reedus (@bigbaldhead) on May 31, 2018 at 7:11pm PDT
Season 9 of The Walking Dead will premiere on AMC later this year.