The Walking Dead ended up outstaying its welcome, to some extent, with the recent season 11 finale serving as what many felt was a long overdue conclusion to the AMC series.
In reality, the franchise is far from over because a number of spin-off TV shows are in development - joining the ones we already have - with a focus on characters like Daryl, Maggie and Negan, and Rick Grimes and Michonne. In the case of the latter, the original plan was for Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira to star in a trilogy of movies, an incredibly ambitious idea.
It was also one with a lot of risks (primarily in terms of box office success), especially as interest in the franchise has waned. That might explain why the movies were scrapped for a limited series finally revealing what became of Rick and detailing Michonne's journey to track him down.
Discussing the project on the Talking Strange podcast, The Walking Dead producer and director Greg Nicotero explained, "Several iterations of the [movie] script flew around and it just ended up not coming to fruition. The idea of doing a Rick Grimes show popped up a year and a half ago probably."
"I don’t think anybody really thought it was gonna happen," he continued. "Lo’ and behold, as we get closer we start realizing, ‘Look, if we’re not going to do the movies then maybe there’s a show there.'"
While this spin-off could be a one-and-done story, there's always a chance it will run for multiple seasons, allowing The Walking Dead team even more time to explore this concept than one, two, or three movies ever could. Rick's story deserves a proper ending (especially as it differs greatly from what we saw in Robert Kirkman's comic books), so we are intrigued by this one.
AMC clearly still sees a lot of value in the franchise, anyway, and it won't be shambling off into the distance anytime soon.