The Walking Dead's Rick Grimes will die, says creator Robert Kirkman

Eventually, at least

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman did a Reddit AMA this week to promote his new show Outcast, so obviously everyone asked him about The Walking Dead.

I’ll cut to the chase, here's the exchange that’s left fans reeling:

u/maxforce54:  do rick die?

u/: RobertKirkman: He do eventually.

Did he just reveal the protagonist’s face in a bid to pre-empt the endless theorising a la the Peaky Blinders creator? Probably not, he just meant it in the ‘we all die at some point’ sense and was toying with fans, so no cause for alarm.

He did however reveal that he has the show’s ending planned in his head.

“YES [I do],” he said, “but y'know... it's not happening for a long, LOOOOOONG time.”

What is probably of more immediate interest is how he addressed the controversial season 6 “finale” head on.

After repeated questions about it, “I just want to point out that a lot of what you seem to hate about the finale are your assumptions of how season 7 will start,” he wrote.

“The death will have no impact now, etc. I assure you it will. You're welcome to be unhappy with the episode that aired. Was it a misstep? Maybe. Only time will tell.

“Also, there's a lot of assumptions about why we did what we did, "ratings grab" which also isn't true.”

You can read his full response here.