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Today Marks 3 Years Since Rick Grimes Left The Walking Dead and Fans Are Paying Tribute

Rick Grimes

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Remember Rick Grimes? That one guy who was on The Walking Dead? Said Coral a lot? Yeah, him. Turns out many fans miss the OG cast member since he was (spoiler alert!) taken away on a helicopter just after an explosion left him for dead in Season 9. And with today marking the 3rd anniversary of his disappearance from the show, and a promise of movies dedicated to his life looming in the horizon, fans are gathering on social media to honor the character.


“Today would be a wonderful day to announce something *anything* about the Rick Grimes films,” The Walking Dead World fan account remarked on Twitter. And we couldn’t agree more. Three years is a long time for a show to continue to thrive after a main character leaves, and The Walking Dead has mostly pulled that off. Sure, they lost a lot of fans with the deaths of prominent characters, but the show continues to innovate in what would ordinarily be a boring world of the same zombie killing every episode.


Season 9, Episode 5 was an important milestone in the popular post-apocalyptic series. Straying from the original graphic novels, The Walking Dead TV show has always taken liberties with its characters, but the apparent loss of Rick Grimes was a big one. Love him or hate him, he’s the first character we saw on the first episode of Season 1 and he established so much of what the current surviving group became.


After luring a horde of zombies onto a bomb-rigged bridge, the severely injured Rick waited on the bridge until the group of undead were all in a position for maximum carnage. But when some zombies knocked over his box of TNT, he decided to sacrifice himself by shooting the dynamite and blowing up everything, himself included. Or so everyone on the show though.

We, of course, get to see Rick being airlifted away from the scene later, barely alive, giving us hope that he will be seen again somewhere in the TWD universe. Since then, the promise of a movie trilogy has been announced that will focus entirely on the life of the former Sheriff’s Deputy.


In Season 10 of the main series, Michonne finds Rick’s boots washed up on the shore of Bloodworth Island while helping Virgil. This gives Michonne hope that Rick is still alive, making her the only character with that knowledge.


And while not a clue to further the hunt for Rick, we did get to see him in the Season 4 premiere episode of Fear the Walking Dead as it chronologically corresponded to the events at the end of the main series’ Season 8 finale.

But yes, Rick is not dead and we will see him again. This being the third year anniversary of him leaving the main series, let’s toast to his legacy and share some memes in his honor. To Rick!

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    Shawn has been infatuated with the post-apocalyptic genre since he wore out his horribly American-dubbed VHS of the original Mad Max as a child. Shawn is the former Editor-in-Chief at Massively.com, creator of the Aftermath post-apocalyptic immersion event, and author of "AI For All," a guide to navigating this strange new world of artificial intelligence.
    He currently resides on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere with his wife and four children.

    Don't even think about sharing this article.

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