The surprise of the premiere of Ones Who Live

Warning: This article contains spoilers about the premiere of The Walking Dead: Those Who Live“Years.”

With all the talk about how The Walking Dead: Those Who Live was going to be primarily a love story, you might have been led to believe that the franchise’s latest spin-off series would be devoid of brutally shocking acts. Those beliefs were dispelled just minutes into the first episode.

The series debut began by showing Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes working for the Civic Republic Army on an assignment to eliminate burning walkers. Captive Rick was tied by the wrist to a soldier so he couldn’t escape, but that soldier didn’t realize that he was dealing with a guy who would literally cut his own wrist to free himself, which is exactly what Rick did.

Rick not only cut off his left hand, proclaiming “This is how” before swinging the axe, but then cauterized the wound in the flames of a dead zombie while trying to escape. (Unfortunately, it was all for nothing as Rick was recaptured. DOH!)

As brutal and shocking as the move may have been, it actually corrects a huge difference between The Walking Dead comic and television adaptation that followed. In the comic, Rick lost his hand early on: it was cut off by the Governor (played on television by David Morrissey) in issue #28 after Rick refused to answer questions while being interrogated. If the show had followed suit, TV Rick would have lost his hand in season 3 of the original series.

According to showrunner Scott M. Gimple, the impetus to finally start separating Rick Grimes from his limbs came from the man who played him. “I played with the idea but didn’t commit to it through all sorts of iterations of the story,” Gimple tells EW. “But it was Andy who pushed it. “Andy was the one who crossed the goal line.”

The star admits he is guilty as charged, which is not surprising as he campaigned to return to the original. walking Dead. “I just bullied everyone into submission,” Lincoln says. “And there were a lot of conversations, particularly with AMC, with people saying, ‘Andy, we love the idea, but are you In fact Are you sure of this? But I just thought, this is the time to do what the comic did and honor it. “I’ve been trying to present this for years and everyone was just yelling at me.”

And why was it this the time to do it? Because fans know Rick Grimes’ “never give up” attitude all too well. “We had to explain why Rick had never come back,” Lincoln says. “This is a guy who would do anything to get back, so what is the most extraordinary act or effort he would make to try to get back with the one he loves?”

Cutting off your hand seems like a perfect fit. And Gimple explains that’s why they had to address it from the beginning. “The reason he’s at the beginning of the story is because this is Rick Grimes,” the showrunner says. “Then 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 after that he doesn’t even give up!

walking Dead The comic’s creator, Robert Kirkman, later said he regretted cutting off Rick’s hand in the comic because it forced him to have to write often about the injury, but Gimple says the television version only requires “a commitment to solve it, whatever problems may arise. him.” The showrunner also says that the moment in the original comic was worth the headaches it created for Kirkman. “I think it was important to see it as a comic reader, because it helped set the tone of what this world is and that these Crazy things can happen.”

And that tone has just been set Those who live.

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