Warning: This article contains spoilers about the premiere of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, “Years.”
With all the talk about how The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live was going to primarily be a love story, you might have been lulled into believing the latest spinoff series in the franchise would be devoid of brutally shocking acts. Those beliefs were dispelled just minutes into the very first episode.
The series debut began by showing Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes working for the Civic Republic Military on a job to clear out walkers on fire. The captive Rick was tethered by his wrist to a solider so he could not escape, but that soldier did not realize he was dealing a guy who would literally chop off his own wrist to get free — which is exactly what Rick did.
Gene Page/AMC
Not only did Rick chop his left hand off — proclaiming “This is how” before swinging the ax — but he then cauterized the wound in the flames of a dead zombie while attempting to make his escape. (Alas, it was all for naught as Rick was then recaptured. DOH!)
As brutal and shocking as the move was, it actually course corrects a big difference between The Walking Dead comic book and TV adaptation that followed. In the comic book, Rick lost his hand very early on — it was chopped off by the Governor (played on TV by David Morrissey) in issue 28 after Rick refused to answer questions while being interrogated. Had the show followed suit, TV Rick would have lost his hand around season 3 of the original series.
According to showrunner Scott M. Gimple, the push to finally start separating Rick Grimes from his limbs came from the man playing him. “I played around with the idea but didn’t commit to it through all sorts of iterations of the story,” Gimple tells EW. “But it was Andy that pushed it. Andy was the one to bring it across the goal line.”
Gene Page/AMC
The star admits he is guilty as charged, which is not surprising since he campaigned for the move back on the original Walking Dead. “I just bullied everybody into submission,” says Lincoln. “And there were quite a lot of conversations, particularly with AMC, with people going, ‘Now Andy, we love the idea, but are you really sure about this?’ But I just thought: This is the time to do what the comic book did and honor that. I’ve been trying to pitch this for years, and everybody was just shouting me down.”
And why was this the time to do it? Because fans are well aware of the “never quit” attitude of Rick Grimes. “We had to explain why Rick had never returned,” says Lincoln. “This is a guy that would do anything to return, so what is the most extraordinary act or effort that he would put himself through in order to try and get back to his beloved?”
Gene Page/AMC
Cutting off your own hand would seem to fit the bill. And Gimple explains that’s why they had to address it at the very get-go. “The reason it’s at the start of the story is that this is Rick Grimes,” says the showrunner. “So why hasn’t he escaped? This is a guy who will do anything, but what happens when you do anything and you still don’t win? And he doesn’t even give up after that!”
Walking Dead comic book creator Robert Kirkman later said he regretted cutting off Rick’s hand in the comic because it forced him to often have to write around the injury, but Gimple says the TV version just requires “a commitment to figuring it out, whatever problems might come of it.” The showrunner also says the original comic book moment was worth whatever headaches it created for Kirkman. “I think it was important as a comic reader to see it, because it helped set the tone of what this world is that these crazy things can happen.”
And that tone has just been set on The Ones Who Live.
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