It seems like we have been waiting for news on the Rick Grimes Walking Dead movie longer than the zombie apocalypse in the show took to wipe out most of the original cast, with some even questioning whether they will see it at all. Now Walking Dead executive producer Gale Anne Hurd has given fans an insight into why the continuation of Rick Grimes' story is taking a bit longer than expected to come to fruition and it all seem to centre on general issues of trying to make the scope of the movie match the expectation of a theatrical release.

It was two years ago that a short little Comic-Con teaser was released announcing that Andrew Lincoln would be reprising his role of Rick Grimes in a theater only release, and Walking Dead lovers would finally get to find out what happened to the show's core character after he departed the show in 2018. Speaking to Variety at the Locarno Film Festival, Hurd explained why the return of Rick has been a long, slow process.

"When the series (The Walking Dead) itself has such a large scope, you have to make sure that the scope of the film matches the demands of a theatrical audience with the nuanced characters that people come to expect from the TV series. That's why."

Back in 2018, the announcement was originally made that there would be a trilogy of made for TV movies that would involve a big evolution from the show and would tell an "epic story told over years. It was mean to air along with the Walking Dead series, but that all seemed to change over time and the following year AMC announced a partnership with Skybound Entertainment and Universal Pictures would bring the Rick Grime story to cinemas for the first movie, which would tell the story of where Rick ended up after his departure from the main series.

During last month's virtual SAN Diego Comic Con, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman gave an update that turned out to be not much of an update.

"I wish that there were more updates. There's a lot going on behind the scenes," Kirkman said. "Everybody's working very hard to make this thing as good as it can be. All I will say: we don't want a bad Rick Grimes movie. We want an amazing Rick Grimes movie, so everybody behind the scenes is making sure that when this comes out it was worth the wait and it is actually the special, character-building Rick Grimes journey that everybody wants it to be."

Kirkman continued: "We're not going to be rushing this thing out, and we're going to make sure that it's perfect. So that's what's going on behind the scenes. And when it finally comes out, when we're showing trailers and stuff, you'll see. You'll be like, 'That's exactly what we wanted. I'm so glad they waited.'"

With The Walking Dead itself now heading into its endgame with one hugely expanded final season, some would question whether the Rick Grimes stories have missed their time to shine. That said, there are a number of other Walking Dead shows still rolling on and even more planned, so perhaps the franchise is not quite dead yet.