The Walking Dead Previews Next Week’s Episode, the First of Rick Grimes’ Final Two Appearances

AMC has released its official preview for next week’s episode of The Walking Dead, titled “The Obliged,” which will be the fourth of the show’s ninth season. This preview also reveals that this will be the second-to-last episode for Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes with his exit approaching sooner rather than later. You can find the official description of the episode below.

Rick's vision of a civilized future is threatened by a sudden reckoning with past sins that remain unavenged and unforgiven.

So, with Lincoln leaving the series in just two episodes, is there any chance we will ever see him back? Showrunner Angela Kang broke down the situation, leaving the door slightly open with respect to “time jumps,” which could also mean flashbacks. You can read her comments below.

He is definitely out of the show this season. The intention is, this is his exit from the show, but who knows what time may bring. We always love our Andrew, so since we’ve got some time jumps you never know what might happen.”

Fellow cast members Khary Payton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who play King Ezekiel and Negan respectively, also chimed in with their own thoughts on Rick’s final episodes, calling his ending befitting and mentioning that it might not be set in stone. We’ll have to wait and see what the latter comment means but you can read them for yourself below.

When I look back and think about [Rick’s exit] I think it was an amazing event, and I just got this feeling that nothing’s set in stone, I’ll just leave it at that.

Look, it’s a hard deal, Rick leaving the world of The Walking Dead, so I think his exit... is an okay exit, all things considered. It’s befitting of Rick Grimes.”

This is all we know for now but The Walking Dead will continue Sunday nights on AMC as we rapidly head towards Rick Grimes’ final two episodes.

About the Author

Chris Morse

Programmer by day, writer by night. Having grown up surrounded by plenty of horror movies and video games, it only made sense for Chris to combine all of these passions into one place: Dead Entertainment. Whether he's working on designs, tinkering with the platform, or just writing up the latest horror news, he's sure to be hard at work keeping the wheels turning on this website no matter what time of day it is. When not coding or gaming, you can find him donning a Cheesehead and heading to the Midwest to cheer on his favorite NFL team, the Green Bay Packers. #GoPackGo

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