Lincoln also came on EW Radio — along with his castmates — to discuss his exit. While Danai Gurira, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan paid tribute to their friend, Lincoln discussed his exit. “Let me clarify something,” Lincoln began. “Yes, it’s my last season on the TV show, The Walking Dead.” That statement mirrors other cryptic comments by the star that seem designed to either keep fans guessing or leave the door open to him possibly playing Rick Grimes in some other incarnation (video games, film, another spin-off series).
He then went on to talk about what it was like filming his final episodes, which have already wrapped. “Completing the show was like releasing air finally,” says Lincoln. “And it was very satisfying the last two episodes in particular. But doing a panel and having to talk to [thousands of] people in Hall H and then have all my friends hug me at the end? The s— got real, is the truth of the matter.”
As for why the star is leaving the biggest TV series in basic cable history, the reason is simple: family. Lincoln lives in England and The Walking Dead shoots for over half the year in Georgia, keeping him away from his wife and kids for prolonged stretches of time. “I have two young children, and I live in a different country, and they become less portable as they get older,” says the man who helped change the zombified face of television. “It was that simple. It was time for me to come home.”
