THE WALKING DEAD Boss Still Wants a Rick and Daryl Reunion, But Fans May Have to Wait
The Walking Dead franchise has delivered some long-awaited reunions that fans never thought they'd see. Rick Grimes found his way back to Michonne. Daryl Dixon reunited with Carol. Even Negan got a replacement for his beloved Lucille. But there’s still one reunion that continues to sit at the top of many fans’ wish lists: Rick and Daryl sharing the screen again.
The bond between those two characters helped define The Walking Dead for much of its run, and despite the franchise expanding into multiple spinoffs, their story together remains unfinished.
During a recent interview with Brandon Davis, Scott M. Gimple was asked about the possibility of finally bringing Rick and Daryl back together. According to Gimple, that goal is still very much alive.
“Absolutely still a hope,” Gimple said. While fans would love to see it happen sooner rather than later, Gimple explained that there are real-world challenges standing in the way.
“It’s very challenging for a variety of reasons, which have everything to do with 2026 production. But things change very quickly.”
The franchise’s chief creative officer also made it clear that his plans extend beyond just Rick and Daryl. Characters like Morgan and Negan remain part of the larger conversation as AMC continues to map out the future of the zombie universe. The challenge, however, is coordinating all of those moving pieces.
Complicating matters even more is the fact that The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is expected to conclude its run later this year. Adding to the speculation, Norman Reedus recently shared what many fans interpreted as a farewell message to the character, raising questions about what comes next for Daryl.
As for how a reunion could actually happen, Gimple revealed that multiple scenarios are already being considered, say there are “all sorts of garden-of-forking-paths kind of plans.”
That flexibility seems intentional because even Gimple isn't putting a timetable on when audiences might see these characters cross paths again. “It might be a minute. It might be tomorrow. I might be off at the retirement home,” he said.
Still, he remains confident that the story potential is too strong to ignore. “I think we’ll eventually get there, and I think there’s enough stuff to handle, source material, emotional, plot-wise, everything, that we could do something brilliant.”
For longtime fans, that’s probably the most encouraging update they've heard in a while. Rick and Daryl's friendship was one of the emotional pillars of The Walking Dead, and seeing the two characters reunite after everything they've endured would be a major event for the franchise.
While that moment remains somewhere down the road, fans won't have to wait quite as long to see Rick, Michonne, and Daryl together in some form. The upcoming video game The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival will feature all three characters as playable heroes in a beat-'em-up adaptation of the iconic All-Out War storyline.
It marks the first time in more than 12 years that Rick, Michonne, and Daryl have been packaged together in a Walking Dead project. Even if the game's story doesn't necessarily place them side-by-side in the same scenes.
The bigger question remains whether AMC can eventually bring all the pieces together for a true on-screen reunion. Based on Gimple's comments, the desire is certainly there. Now it's just a matter of when the stars align and those roads finally lead Rick and Daryl back to each other.