The face of The Walking Dead is leaving the franchise.
Star Andrew Lincoln, who has played beleaguered former sheriff Rick Grimes since the show’s premiere, will exit the AMC zombie drama in its upcoming ninth season, sources confirm to The Hollywood Reporter. Meanwhile, co-star Norman Reedus (Daryl) is in the midst of negotiating a rich new deal that will pay him more than $20 million as he will become the new No. 1 on the call sheet.
Sources say Lincoln will be phased out in season nine in a fashion similar to co-star Lauren Cohan (Maggie), who will film only six episodes of the series. Cohan opted to exit the high-rated AMC drama and booked the lead in ABC’s Whiskey Cavalier after her efforts to renegotiate a new deal to stay on The Walking Dead went south. After ABC picked up Whiskey to series for a midseason bow, it closed the door on Cohan’s full-time return to the series — even if she had closed a new deal. AMC declined comment.
Lincoln’s decision to leave comes as a major shock for the franchise, which ranks as one of the top dramas on all of television among total viewers and the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. What’s more, Lincoln’s Rick is still the focal point of creator Robert Kirkman’s comic series on which the AMC drama is based.
Losing Lincoln comes as The Walking Dead has always taken a “remix” approach to its source material and after an eighth season that featured the death of Rick’s son, Carl (Chandler Riggs), who was largely seen as the future of both the show and comic. (Carl remains alive and well in the source material.)
For his part, Lincoln lives with his family in London and returns to the show’s Atlanta set for production. He has made no secret that he has little desire to cash in on the show’s success with film deals. The actor had made no secret that he saw his time with The Walking Dead coming to an end sooner rather than later after Rick’s death was foreshadowed multiple times in a season eight storyline that wound up being part of Carl’s death.
In December, Lincoln told The Hollywood Reporter that “there needs to be an end game and that is something that…
