Perhaps inspired by the planned movie trilogy featuring Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, former star of The Walking Dead David Morrissey is hopeful that the same will happen with him and the Governor. Ten seasons into the hit zombie drama, Morrissey’s antagonistic character from the show’s third and fourth seasons remains among the show’s most memorable personalities. Because he only lasted for about a season and a half, Morrissey feels there is still a lot more story left to tell with the Governor, and there’s even a story about the character that’s already been written that can be used for inspiration.
For those who don’t know the history, the Governor was first featured in the original The Walking Dead comic book series, serving a similar role as the leader of Woodbury. After he was similarly killed off during his siege on the prison, the Governor had his entire backstory expanded upon in a chapter book series from creator Robert Kirkman and author Jay Bonansinga. Told in four parts, the Governor’s origin book series consisted of The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor, The Road to Woodbury, and The Fall of the Governor: Part One and Part Two.
“They are brilliant stories. If I returned, I’d love to return, in a filmic way, to tell those stories,” David Morrissey said of the novels in a new interview with Digital Spy. “One of the great things for me was in season four when I came back, I had four episodes, and they were all me. It was just my story. And I loved that. And I think there’s something to be told. There’s stories to be told in those novels that I think are really fascinating.”
Some would say that The Walking Dead was most interesting when the Governor was around, as the war between Woodbury and the prison will always be among the most memorable storylines of the series. After murdering most of his own followers at the end of season 3, the Governor was featured in two of his own episodes before he returned to the prison with a new army only to be subsequently killed off. Those episodes featured some references to the Rise of the Governor books, but still left the story of his pre-Woodbury days largely untold.
The Governor might have died in the show’s fourth season, and even his biggest foes — Rick and Michonne — are also no longer featured as main characters. Still, The Walking Dead is going pretty strong, remaining one of cable television’s most-watched programs even with declining ratings. The series has also been enjoying some of its strongest reviews with the critics yet, as the previous two seasons are the highest rated of them all on Rotten Tomatoes — each currently sitting at 91% Fresh.
The Walking Dead will air what was meant to be the season 10 finale on Oct. 4, 2020 on AMC. An additional six episodes will be added to the season in early 2021, with season 11 following some time after. It remains unclear as to when we might see the Walking Dead movie with Andrew Lincoln, but if the project is well received when it arrives, then we just might see a Rise of the Governor movie made one day with Morrissey as well. This news comes to us from Digital Spy.
