Why the latest 'Walking Dead' spinoff is an 'epic love story' (blame 'Bridgerton')

PASADENA, Calif. − "The Walking Dead" is back again. And again.

Although the zombie series that was once the biggest show on television ended in 2022, the universe lives on in half a dozen spinoffs and sequel series on AMC and AMC+, and the latest installment in the franchise finds love in a very hopeless place (the zombie apocalypse).

Focused on original "Dead" characters Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), "The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live" (premiering Feb. 25) will look and feel very different than that series, and the other "Dead" series that have aired so far, like "Dead City" and "Daryl Dixon."

"It's a very different world now," executive producer Scott M. Gimple, who has worked on all the "Dead" shows, said to reporters at a Television Critics Association Press Tour panel for the series Tuesday in Los Angeles. "The Ones Who Live" pulls out the lens of the post-apocalyptic landscape for a bigger picture look at what the world has been up to since the zombie virus spread. Fans can expect technology, the military and helicopters in the normally pastoral world. But electricity isn't what sets "Ones Who Live" apart.

"It's an apocalyptic epic love narrative," said Gurira, 45, who serves as a producer on the show in addition to acting in it (along with Lincoln). "The epic love story aspect is what distinguishes it from other iterations of this world. We didn't get to explore it a ton on the (original series). When love is the driving force, when it is the propelling thing, when it is making the plot move, what does that look like?"

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As fans of the original series know, Rick and Michonne have long shared an "epic" love, but have been apart since Lincoln departed the series in 2018. The new series is about (hopefully) bringing these crazy kids back together.

"It was remarkably easy putting the cowboy boots back on," Lincoln, 50, said. "My knees hurt a bit more, but apart from that it was great to be the sheriff again."

So how did Rick and Michonne's romance end up as the main plot of the new series?

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"We watched a lot of 'Bridgerton,'" Lincoln joked. "No, it's been a long time coming, this story ... There was a real intention to place Rick in an environment and a mindset that he’d not been in before. He'd been pushed and pulled and pummeled and abused in the main series so much they thought, where can we place him? So it was a new adventure. ... Hopefully at some point the two characters get together and when that happens hopefully it will all make complete sense."

The series adds a new cast around Lincoln and Gurira, including "Lost" alumnus Terry O'Quinn as a new villain Major General Beale, who gets in the way of our zombie-hunter lovers.

"The obstacles of a love story, in a rom-com, could be a mistaken identity," said Gimple. "In this, the obstacles are the epic part, it is the horror part."

So far this story has a beginning, middle and end; Lincoln and Gurira aren't expected to come back for another season. But in the "Dead" universe you never really know who will survive to fight another day.

"I think there's a ride that people are going to get to take," said Gurira. "And I really want them to take it."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live': Why it's an 'epic love story'