The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Stars Tease The 'Wild Ride' Ahead, Throwback 'Surprises' And More
When The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (eventually) reunites star-crossed lovers Rick and Michonne, don't expect them to run toward each other in romantic slow motion.
The AMC franchise's sixth spinoff (premiering Sunday, Feb. 25 at 9/8c) is as eager to make hearts stop altogether as it is to make them skip a beat. "We want you to take a wild ride," Danai Gurira said when she and Andrew Lincoln sat down with TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich during the Television Critics Association winter press tour.
Here, the series' leads preview the bumpy road ahead — and the chance of catching up along the way with a familiar face or two.
TVLINE | How have Rick and Michonne changed since they were last together back in Season 9 of the mothership?
ANDREW LINCOLN | It was very much our intention to place Rick in a new world and a new mindset that we hadn't seen before. What's the joy of playing a character unless they can be pushed into different places? And I certainly think these lovers meet at a place that really compromises them both.
DANAI GURIRA | Before Michonne leaves the mothership, there's this journey she goes on when she's pregnant... where a friend of hers from college betrays her.... [Refresh your memory of that episode here.] That shifted her in a way that it took her a long time to heal from, and when she shifted, she had to let go of searching for Rick. Once she finds these clues that he can't have died, she'll go to the ends of the Earth to find him.
TVLINE | In the past, there's been no line that Rick wouldn't cross to protect his people. Is there now?
LINCOLN | There isn't. I mean, that was absolutely in his DNA [from the start]. That was the engine that drove him.
GURIRA | Michonne loved that about him.
TVLINE | Relatedly, Michonne has had stronger boundaries than Rick in the past. Does she still?
GURIRA | Boundaries in terms of what she will and will not do? Well, I don't know. She's done some crazy things. [She and Rick are] of the same mind. I always used to say that what she found very attractive [about him] was, you know... he bit out a man's neck for Carl. [Remember that? It's recapped here.] Michonne was like, "Yes, bite out his neck, I'll take the gun, shoot this one in the head, shoot that one, let's go!"
LINCOLN | That's very much in their story, that attitude, that sort of responsibility that they both share as heroes, that sometimes they have to do selfless things at the expense of [morality]. And that's a big question that's very much in this story, which is they do share that absolute.
You know, we talk about As and Bs from the main series; that's very much a part of this that evolves into a much bigger question that they face later in the season.
TVLINE | On the mothership, Jadis was eager to sleep with Rick. Is that lust interest still there?
LINCOLN | They have a very unorthodox relationship. She saved his life and yet left him in a place where he can't leave... She's in it to win it for herself. So they are bound, both trapped in a game of cat-and-mouse.
GURIRA | But they couldn't have more different hearts. What drives him and what drives her is like literally opposites.
TVLINE | Can we expect any updates on any other characters from The Walking Dead?
GURIRA | Possibly....
LINCOLN | There might be a couple more surprises.
TVLINE | How rewarding was it for the two of you as co-creators and executive producers to have more of a say in the characters and the story, and bringing this to life?
GURIRA | It was a powerful learning experience. I've written stuff [before], but to get in the trenches this way? I've never done that. Thankfully, I was with family. I was with Andy and [chief franchise officer Scott M.] Gimple... [It was very rewarding] being able to really arc like, "What should this moment be about? What is this leading to? Where is the love story there?" We all pushed each other.
TVLINE | You're no longer the action figure. You're playing with the action figure now.
GURIRA | Yeah, you're playing with it, and you're it at the same time! [Laughs]
LINCOLN | It was the two hats that you had to put on when you're on set as well. You have to do your day job, you know? That was the sort of disconnect.
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