Two days ago, when AMC announced plans to launch a third The Walking Dead series next year centered on two young women coming of age in the zombie apocalypse, my first thought was that it could center around Charlie from Fear the Walking Dead or Judith Grimes from The Walking Dead. The more I’ve thought about it, however, the more that it makes sense that it would be Judith Grimes, played by the phenomenal kid actor, Cailey Fleming, who also played Young Rey in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.
Fleming is a little older than she looks — she recently turned 12 years old — and carrying a show with another young actress is not out of the question. In fact, Seth Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel, recently said (perhaps coyly) that Fleming has “got all the makeup of what it takes to be the headliner of the show.”
She may get that opportunity, and the tea leaves suggest it is a possibility. Filming for the spin-off series begins this summer in Virginia, which is not too far from Georgia, where The Walking Dead films (while The Walking Dead is also set in and around Alexandria, Virginia). Moreover, filming on the tenth season of The Walking Dead begins in May, meaning that there’d be enough time to write Judith Grimes out of The Walking Dead before the spin-off kicks into gear. In fact, there’s no better time than now to write her out, as there are questions surrounding what will happen to Judith Grimes once Michonne exits the series. Without her father (Rick Grimes) or her other father (Shane) or her mother (Michonne) or her other mother (Lori) around, Judith will essentially be orphaned.
In fact, there’s a possibility that Judith Grimes is separated from Michonne, as Michonne searches for Rick Grimes (and we expect Michonne to reunite with Rick for the stand-alone movies). In her separation, she may encounter another young woman her age, thus forming the basis for The Walking Dead spin-off.
It’d be almost fitting that the daughter of the guy who launched The Walking Dead would become the focal point for a The Walking Dead spin-off. In fact, the other young woman leading the series could be a familiar face, too, in Lydia, who is probably feeling very displaced from the rest of The Walking Dead community right now in the wake of Henry’s death.
The series could launch in 2020 as a spin-off from the first The Walking Dead stand-alone movie, and who better oversee that transition than the spin-off’s showrunner, Matt Negrete, who also wrote Rick’s exit episode from The Walking Dead. It is the perfect way to tie the whole The Walking Dead universe together: A spin-off centered on the daughter of the two lead characters of the flagship series, who will also be headlining the stand-alone movies.
