‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ delivers Rick’s most shocking comic book moment in premiere
“The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” the newest spinoff of “The Walking Dead,” which premiered Sunday night on AMC.The series opens with Rick, who’s been working for the Civic Republic Military, being held prisoner, tethered by his wrist to a soldier to prevent him from escaping.Fans of “The Walking Dead” already know how tough Rick is — he’s made it this far in the zombie apocalypse universe, after all — but what he does next will make even the show’s most hardcore fans flinch in disbelief.Deciding that he needs a plan to escape, Rick says, “This is how,” before swinging an ax to chop off his left wrist — and then, in agony, cauterizing the wound in the flames of a dead zombie and trying to flee … though shortly afterward he’s recaptured.(He later escapes and wears a black glove on his left arm — complete with a switchblade.)So now Rick will go through this season of “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” sans his left hand, all while looking to reunite with his true love, Michonne (Danai Gurira), in their continuing fight against deadly zombies.The “Walking Dead” universe is, of course, based on Robert Kirkman’s comic book series. In the comic book, Rick’s left hand is chopped off early on, in issue 28, by the Governor after he refuses to answer questions under interrogation.Showrunner Scott Gimple said that the decision to part Rick from his left hand came from Lincoln himself.“I played around with the idea but didn’t commit to it through all sorts of iterations of the story,” Gimple told Entertainment Weekly.