The Walking Dead franchise will birth its sixth spin-off series with the release of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live in 2024. It isn’t just any addition to the franchise but promises a reintroduction of one of the franchise’s most loved characters. The AMC zombie post-apocalyptic series has been one of American television’s most successful shows.
Like the original series, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is also based on its comic book series created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. While The Walking Dead fans and audiences await the second season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon sometime in 2024, The Ones Who Live miniseries is a perfect way to stay connected to the franchise. Here’s everything to know about The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Backstory And Plot
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is a direct sequel to the original The Walking Dead series that aired across 11 seasons from October 31, 2010, to November 20, 2022. Although the miniseries comes almost 14 years after the original series premiere, The Ones Who Live is set in a time after the events of The Walking Dead season 11. The biggest and most exciting entry in The Ones Who Live is the return of Sheriff Deputy-turned-zombie-hunter Rick Grimes and his romantic partner, Michonne. Viewers will remember Rick Grimes as leader of the Alexandria Safe-Zone, who in season 9 was presumed dead after blowing up a bridge he and several walkers were on.
Michonne’s arc in The Walking Dead saw her go off from the group in search of Rick Grimes. However, the original series gave clues that both characters had survived in its finale episode (“Rest in Peace”), which saw Rick and Michonne make cameo appearances. Their appearance set up the events of The Ones Who Live. What is certain in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is that the six-episode miniseries will help give viewers closure on their romance. However, knowing The Walking Dead, the limited series will hardly be only a love story but also a fight for a place among the living in an ever-evolving post-apocalyptic world.
The Cast and Characters of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
With Rick Grimes returning to the franchise, English actor Andrew Lincoln will also return to reprise his role in The Ones Who Live. Besides his cameo appearances in The Walking Dead‘s penultimate and final season, Andrew Lincoln only guest-starred in an episode of Fear the Walking Dead (2018) and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022). In theater, he also played the iconic character Ebenezer Scrooge in Jack Thorne‘s 2020 A Christmas Carol play at The Old Vic. Zimbabwean-American actress Danai Gurira will not only return to reprise her role as the katana-wielding warrior Michonne Hawthorne, but she’s also The Ones Who Live co-creator alongside Scott M. Gimple.
Viewers should also expect to see Scottish actress Pollyanna McIntosh reprise her role as Jadis Stokes/Anne. Although she disappeared on the CRM helicopter with Rick Grimes, the character was reintroduced in season 2 of the spin-off series The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2021). Since her last appearance in the franchise, Pollyanna McIntosh was cast in a recurring role as Queen Ælfgifu of Northampton on Netflix’s sequel show Vikings: Valhalla. Joining The Walking Dead franchise are South African actress Lesley-Ann Brandt, who’s cast as Pearl Thorne, and Lost actor Terry O’Quinn, who plays Major General Beale.
When and Where to Watch The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live will premiere on February 25, 2024. As an AMC series, The Ones Who Live will be available on AMC and the network’s streaming service AMC+. The series is expected to premiere as a six-episode miniseries. Fans and The Walking Dead enthusiasts will recall a Rick Grimes continuation story initially planned as a feature-length AMC original film. The network decided to produce it as a series before settling for a six-episode miniseries. As of April 2023, the series was titled The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne but was retitled a few months later, in July 2023, to The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
Watch the entire Walking Dead franchise on AMC+
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