'The Walking Dead' Season 9 Spoilers, News & Updates: Showrunner Gives a Final Teaser About Rick Grimes's Exit

“The Walking Dead” season 9 has fans on the edge of their seats with the season's last episode leaving Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) impaled on a piece of rebar with a horde of walkers coming from all sides. Grimes has once again become the victim of his own good heart but the anticipation is made even worse by the knowledge that the upcoming “The Walking Dead” season 9 episode will be Andrew Lincoln's last for the series.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, “The Walking Dead” season 9 showrunner Angela Kang shares what she can about Andrew Lincoln's upcoming swan song. Kang mentions that while she cannot officially confirm or deny whether Rick Grimes will die or survive in the upcoming episode, she can confirm that Rick's survivor mentality and his tendency to go to self-sacrificial levels to protect the people he cares for will play the most significant role in his exit.

Fans are already speculating that Rick will be going through a heavy moment of hallucinations in his last stint for “The Walking Dead” season 9. One of the more visible spoilers that caught fan attention in the “The Walking Dead” season 9 episode 5 promos is a scene mirroring Rick's awakening to the apocalypse in the show's first season.

Some fans point out that the “dead” doors will lead to another scene featured heavily in the “The Walking Dead” season 9 Rick Grimes promos and trailers – specifically the scene featuring a field of dead bodies. If the trailer's voice-overs are any indication, it seems that all of Rick's experiences will come to haunt him at this moment hoping to break his will.

But fans may get to see Rick Grimes pull off a final heroic act in his last episode of “The Walking Dead” season 9. Instead of succumbing to the hopelessness of his hallucinations, it is quite possible that Rick Grimes – seeing a larger walker horde heading towards Sanctuary and the rest of the survivors – opts to try to lead them away using his wound as bait. This could explain the scenes of Rick – both on horseback and on foot – nursing his wounds as he is followed by the shambling horde.

Fans can only hope that “The Walking Dead” season 9 will not spell the end of Rick Grimes's story despite Andrew Lincoln's departure. If done right, Rick's potential self-sacrifice can satisfy fans anticipating how good an exit Andrew Lincoln will get for his 9 seasons with the show, while still leaving the possibility of Rick returning to the show open for the future.