The Ones Who Live Season 2 Update May Have Just Teased Rick & Michonne’s Future

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

season 2 gets a new update from franchise Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple. After serving as two of the main characters on the long-running The Walking Dead on AMC, Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes and Danai Gurira’s Michonne returned in The Ones Who Live spinoff show, which chronicled their attempts to reunite in a zombie-infested landscape. Premiering in February 2024, the spinoff was met with a positive reception, leading to interest in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live season 2, despite the show being billed as a limited series.

In a recent interview with The Direct, Gimple, who served as showrunner on The Ones Who Live, addresses Rick and Michonne’s future in the world of The Walking Dead. While he reiterates that the show was conceived as a limited series, which would traditionally mean no season 2, he does tease that it’s not entirely off the table. As for Rick and Michonne, Gimple says audiences could see these characters return to the franchise in some other form:

“I mean the plan was to keep it limited. Not necessarily never to see those characters again, but to keep it limited. But I always say, you never know.

“There’s so many… I’ve been very careful to not say, ‘Oh, that’ll never happen,’ because it does. So you know, there are possibilities. And there’s possibilities of all sorts of strange iterations of shows with those characters and with other characters. So you know I think it’s entirely possible.”

What Gimple’s Tease Means For The Ones Who Live Season 2

Season 1 Was An AMC Success

Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’s ending.

Reviews for The Ones Who Live were generally positive from critics, and the limited series enjoys an 88% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes on top of a respectable 74% Popcornmeter score. The show was also a viewership win, attracting 3 million viewers, the biggest premiere viewership for an AMC show since 2018. At the time, the premiere episode also became the most-watched episode of any show ever on the AMC+ streaming platform. Clearly, love for the Rick and Michonne characters remains strong among audiences.

The Ones Who Live All But Confirms 1 Walking Dead Mystery Will Never Be Answered

The Walking Dead has plenty of mysteries surrounding the franchise, but The Ones Who Live indicated that one huge question may never be answered.

Though conceived as a limited series, The Ones Who Live‘s ending does leave the door open for more. After killing Beale (Terry O’Quinn) and essentially taking down the CRM command structure, Rich and Michonne return home where they reunite with Judith (Cailey Fleming) and R.J. (Antony Azor). The two characters get a decidedly happy ending in the series, but the fact that they remain alive certainly means that they could return, either in a season 2 or in spinoffs like The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon or The Walking Dead: Dead City, both of which remain ongoing.

Daryl Dixon is confirmed to return for season 3 and Dead City season 2 premieres on May 4, 2025.

Our Take On More Rick & Michonne In The Walking Dead Franchise

Should The Characters Get To Keep Their Happy Ending?

Rick Grimes and Michonne Hawthorne using the Echelon briefing in The Walking Dead the Ones Who Live season 1 Ep 6 — Image via AMC

Rick was the anchor for the vast majority of the seasons of The Walking Dead before he departed in season 9, and it was exciting to see Lincoln reprise his iconic role for a limited series opposite Gurira. Rick’s prominence in the world of the Walking Dead means audiences would probably embrace another return from the character in some form, but there’s certainly an argument to be made that The Ones Who Live should serve as the end of the road for these characters.

In The Walking Dead, happy endings are incredibly rare, and the vast majority of the characters introduced in season 1 are long dead. Any return from Rick or Michonne down the line could shatter this happy ending, potentially opening the door for some serious tragedy. It remains to be seen whether The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live will return, but it does sound like Rich and Michonne aren’t done in this franchise just yet.

Source: The Direct