Shortly before his exit from The Walking Dead, it was revealed that Andrew Lincoln would reprise Rick Grimes in a trilogy of movie spin-offs. Aside from the announcement that the movies would be released theatrically, details on the big-screen offshoot have been few and far between. However, The Walking Dead overlord Scott M Gimple has revealed some details as to what the future may hold for Rick.

"We are going to continue to tell Rick’s story, and we are going to discover so much of the world through that story. Rick will be challenged in different ways that, in some ways, everything that he's been through has sort of prepared him for. It's a much larger world than one that he had been operating in, and that was challenging in and of itself.

Now things are heightened, and just as we're going to the movies — and it is the movies proper, suitably widescreen — we're going to be filling that screen with a brand new world."

Interestingly, there's no mention of multiple films as the focus seems to be very much on making the first one something special for the fans. Gimple was also keen to stress that the movie will be suitably cinematic and won't just follow the formula of the TV show.

"The scale is bigger and the budget is bigger, and it's The Walking Dead, but heightened, both in the narrative themes, but also in just what we see onscreen. It's not going to be the exact same thing we saw on television, just larger. We are going in some wild new directions. Movies are a different beast than television. Television is like, boom, we're done. Movies, to calibrate an hour and a half, two hours is no joke, and it's been a lot of fun, but it's a real challenge, and we take it very seriously for the fans.

We really want to deliver them something special, something worth their trip to the movies. We're trying to be very deliberate and deliver something new."

Ultimately we can expect loads of zombies, some shady humans, and possible appearances from other main characters from the series. Michonne (Danai Gurira) is leaving the show over the next couple of episodes, so there's every chance (if she survives) that she'll be reunited with Rick. There's no fixed release for the movie, but the franchise is expanding even more with a second spin-off, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, set to air later this year.