After 11 long seasons, The Walking Dead has finally come to an end. With 177 episodes completed, the series that started off with the world going completely bad amidst a virus that turned people into “walkers” (which pretty much is a fancy way of saying zombies), TWD ended in a way that not only closed off the book on some of our favourite characters, but also hinted at a future where we can expect more. The Walking Dead Series Finale: Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes Returns for Season 11's Last Episode as Fans Get Emotional Over HBO Show Coming to an End After 12 Years! (View Tweets).

With us delving into the spoilers over here of course, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) made a return for the ending of the show. In a final scene that effectively set up their upcoming spinoff sequel, we finally have an idea of what their series might be about now. So, with that out of the way, let’s dive into the return of Rick and Michonne and see what the future entails for The Walking Dead franchise.

How Did Rick and Michonne Return?

The ending for the series revealed the real reason behind Michonne leaving. With her wanting to find Rick, Darryl also learns that Rick is finally alive and sets of on his way to find him. In a different place, we see Michonne continuing her search for Rick and finally finding his belongings.

Seeing that he had written a letter for her, she reads it out while we see Rick near a river that’s infested by walkers trapped under the mud. With a CRM helicopter above him, we hear a line saying “there is no escape for the living” and Rick ends up surrendering.

How Does it Lead Into Their Series?

The Walking Dead spinoff with Rick and Michonne is expected to come out next year on AMC. While the plot details on the series have been kept quite hush, we can expect the CRM to be quite a huge part of the series and possibly dealing with the aftermath of the ending over here. The most interesting thing about this ending is that both of them take place during different periods of time. The scenes of Michonne take place during her leave in season 10 while Rick’s scenes might take place during his exit in season nine.

With Rick being a prisoner of the CRM and trying to escape, it looks like the spinoff sequel can play into this concept. Michonne might be trying to find him while Rick is just trying escape off from the organisation. It’s also interesting, because the CRM is a military group, and they could have easily killed off Rick after saving him in season nine, yet they have him alive which means he might be important to them. The Walking Dead Series Finale: Andrew Lincoln Thanks the Cast for 'Carrying the Torch' in a Heartfelt Message Honoring the End of the Series! (Watch Video).

This pretty much can be the series that we might see next year. Whatever it may be, the hype for it is certainly growing high. You can check out Michonne and Rick Grimes return next year when their untitled spinoff series debuts on AMC.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 21, 2022 03:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).