The Walking Dead Movies: Robert Kirkman 'Very Involved'

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Negan Lives #1! [poilib element="accentDivider"] The Walking Dead creator and Skybound Entertainment co-founder Robert Kirkman hosted a spotlight panel at Comic-Con 2020, which was featured in IGN's Comic-Con@Home livestream on Friday. In addition to reflecting on the recently released Walking Dead epilogue comic Negan Lives, Kirkman also updated fans on the status of multimedia projects like the Rick Grimes-focused Walking Dead movies and the Oblivion Song movie, along with revealing even more voice actors for Amazon's Invincible animated series. Perhaps most importantly, Kirkman reassured fans that he is heavily involved in the Rick Grimes movies and they are still progressing, despite a lack of recent news surrounding these spinoffs of the TV series. As with so many movies and TV shows, the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't helped. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-and-worst-walking-dead-time-jumps&captions=true"] "I am very involved in those," said Kirkman. "I'm talking to Andrew Lincoln quite frequently and working with David Alpert and Scott Gimple and everyone at Universal and AMC and getting that in shape. It's very important to us that these movies are spectacular. I think that to have Andrew Lincoln reprising his role as Rick is a very special thing, and if we were to do these movies that were in any way lackluster, I think would be a disservice to him and a disservice to Rick Grimes and a disservice to the fans. I've been very hands-on with shaping that story and making sure they're on the up-and-up. We're all working very hard to bring you the best possible movie. That and the pandemic is why there's been a bit of a delay in the news." Similarly, Kirkman said progress is being made on Oblivion Song, even if it doesn't seem apparent from the outside. "The movie is still very much in development," he said. "We're working with our partners at Universal to bring this film to life. It is a slow-going process. We probably announced the development of it a little too soon, but it's something that's actively going on behind the scenes on a daily basis. I'm reviewing things and getting things in order, and progress is being made. Hopefully, there'll be news very soon." Building on the recent Invincible cast reveals at Skybound Xpo, Kirkman announced the full cast voicing the Guardians of the Globe (basically the Invincible universe's answer to the Justice League), all of whom are The Walking Dead veterans. That lineup includes Ross Marquand as both The Immortal and Aquarius, Lauren Cohan as War Woman, Michael Cudlitz as Red Rush, Lennie James as Darkwing, Chad Coleman as Martian Man, and Sonequa Martin-Green as Green Ghost. Unfortunately, Kirkman is not at all optimistic about a third season of Cinemax's Outcast series. He noted that the cast has moved on to other projects and the contractual difficulties would be difficult to overcome at this point, short of a situation similar to when Amazon's Jeff Bezos intervened to save The Expanse. Kirkman isn't ruling out the possibility of an Outcast movie, though it's unclear whether he envisions a spinoff of the TV series or a brand new adaptation. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/25/why-the-walking-dead-season-10-finale-is-delayed-ign-now"] Kirkman also downplayed the idea of the Walking Dead comic getting any further spinoffs or continuations after Negan Lives #1. Though that issue seems to set up a new story, ending with Negan setting forth to find his late wife's body and properly lay her to rest, Kirkman pointed out that The Walking Dead #193 already shows the reformed villain visiting her new gravesite. Basically, the beginning and ending of that story have already been told. "It does very much seem like it is setting up a continuing journey for Negan. It is not," said Kirkman. "To a certain extent, the story of Negan recovering her body has a definitive end that's already been said. Do we really need to tell that story? I don't know. It might be fun. Maybe someday we will, but there are no plans whatsoever at this point." Check out IGN's Top 100 TV shows of all time, and check out our Comic-Con@Home 2020 Panel Schedule for more news throughout the weekend. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.