Now I know what you’re thinking, “Andrew Lincoln leaving The Walking Dead! This is catastrophic!” Well before you go and hang up your Lucile bat and put your King County sheriffs uniform away, let’s talk about this.
So we know that Andrew Lincoln is leaving TWD as a report from Collider, which is a fairly accurate source usually. We also know that Norman Reedus is going to have a significant pay increase in order to be the main character.
Andrew Lincoln has been the cop turned apocalypse leader for almost 9 years. I don’t blame him for wanting to spend more time with his kids and family and maybe pursue other opportunities closer to home. He has said before that since Chandler Riggs’ Carl Grimes was killed off he has had a hard time playing Rick.
While all this news is pretty sad, we must look to the bright side of things! Daryl is a great character and I feel he will do a great job leading the show from now until the series finale. I sort of think that Maggie and Rick are going to meet their end at the hands of the Whisperers. This would be absolutely insane to witness.
However they handle Rick Grimes’ death or departure, I am sure it will satisfy fans. As Carl’s death was handled very well as well as Nick Clarke’s from Fear The Walking Dead. We can look at Fear to see how TWD will do without Rick. Recently, they killed Nick for a similar reason. Fear is doing great and I’m really enjoying it still. I’m enjoying it possibly more then I was before.
With Angela Kang leading the ship, I have 100% faith in the writers to handle this well. Angela has written some of TWD's best and most acclaimed episodes such as “A," “Four Walls and a Roof," “Coda," and “Thank You” just to name a few. She also wrote a few episodes for the back half of Season 8, which was a return to what TWD was before the war with Negan.
While it’s sad to see Andrew Lincoln go, we won’t know if it’s actually 100% happening for a while. Until then, let’s enjoy Fear The Walking Dead, as that show is really heating up. Fear The Walking Dead mid-season finale is this Sunday at 9 and The Walking Dead returns October.