The Walking Dead's Ross Marquand Responds to Aaron and Rick Grimes Comparisons

03/20/2022 10:00 pm EDT

Is Aaron replacing Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead? Ross Marquand talks to ComicBook about comparisons between Aaron and comic book Rick — and whether fans should fear if Aaron receives Rick's fate from the comics. Since Season 9, Aaron has noticeably resembled Rick's comic look with his beard and a prosthetic arm. (In the comics, Rick loses his hand to the Governor, and Aaron's arm is amputated after a logging accident on the show.) After Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) disappearance and presumed death, Aaron is the de facto leader of the Alexandria Safe-Zone as of Season 11, which adapts Rick's first meeting with Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) of the Commonwealth. 

"I don't know," Marquand told ComicBook when asked if Aaron's role as leader of Alexandria means he's on a similar arc to Rick's story in the comics. "I tend to stray away from the comparisons between Aaron and Rick, because I get the beard thing and the one arm thing are very obvious things to draw comparisons to [laughs]. But they're such vastly different characters."

The Walking Dead often remixes the comics when swapping storylines for characters no longer on the show. In Season 11, Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) has inherited Michonne's comic book story at the Commonwealth, while pieces of Rick's story are divvied up for characters like Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride). 

"I think there's certainly moments from Andrea's [comic book] storyline that were given Sasha [Sonequa Martin-Green] and vice versa, and I think that it's cool how the show constantly keeps the fans on their toes, who read the comic books as well," Marquand said. "But at the end of the day, I think they're such vastly different characters that there's no saying that this person's going to get this person's storyline just because there's a few similarities here and there." 

Marquand almost exactly resembling Rick's appearance from the comics was "kind of this funny coincidence," showrunner Angela Kang told Skybound during Season 9. "We actually came up with the idea of [Aaron] losing his arm before he was at full-bearded capacity. I kind of knew what he looked like with a beard, but I didn't really think about it too hard because Andy was still growing his beard, and then I was like, 'Huh, that's interesting.' It wasn't fully intentional, but it's kind of like a fun parallel."

Read ComicBook's full Q&A with Marquand about Sunday's Season 11 Episode 13, "Warlords." 

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