Andrew Lincoln to Return to "The Walking Dead" World in TV Movie Trilogy

(SPOILER ALERT: DETAILS FROM SUNDAY NIGHT’S EPISODE OF THE WALKING DEAD AHEAD)

Rick Grimes isn’t walking off into the sunset on The Walking Dead, he’s apparently being whisked away in a helicopter towards a movie trilogy.

Actor Andrew Lincoln’s final episode on the zombie drama as the strong-jawed hero ended with what appeared to be a mortal wound, only to have him airlifted into an unknown future by helicopter. As it turns out, it’s part of a less-mysterious plot: AMC signed Lincoln up for three television movies written by Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple that continue the storyline.

Production on the first installment of the trilogy will begin in early 2019, according to Deadline.

“And I like the idea that we get to tell a bigger story, maybe with a sort of wider vista,” Lincoln said on Sunday night’s episode of The Talking Dead. “And I’ve always been interested in what’s going on out there, you know, whether or not there is contact with the wider world. I want to know the meta of it all. And I suppose to be able to kind of touch upon that in a contained story for me is a very exciting proposition … Maybe it’s the start of a bigger story.”