How long was Rick Grimes in a coma on The Walking Dead?

In the golden age of television that began in the 2000s, few shows had the level of success that “The Walking Dead” had. Based on the Image Comics series of the same name by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, the series was adapted for the small screen by AMC with exciting results (At least in the first seasons, anyway). Not only did the show last 11 seasons and air more than 170 episodes, but it spawned an entire universe of shows that are still going strong to this day.

It all started with that brilliant pilot episode titled “Days Gone Bye,” still considered one of the best in “The Walking Dead” history, in which Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) wakes up from a coma only to discover that the world has been invaded by zombies. As society fell apart, Rick sat in his hospital bed. But how did Rick survive without medical support? More importantly, how long was Rick really in that coma? There is actually a lot to say, even if the answer to the question itself is somewhat simple.

Rick’s awakening from a coma sets up the events of “The Walking Dead” season 1, which is still considered the highlight of the series. It’s a really brilliant way to start, not unlike the way director Danny Boyle opens “28 Days Later.” But how long did Rick have to languish in that hospital bed while the world fell apart around him? In a 2015 interview with Business Insider Information“Fear the Walking Dead” showrunner Dave Erickson explained, with relative precision, how long Rick was in a coma.

“Robert has said for him, in a coma, Rick was probably out for four to five weeks. If you count the days of the first season of our show, we’re probably around the third week (at the end of the season of ‘Fear the Walking Dead’).

There we have it. But there is still another burning question that needs answering. It’s not just about the amount of time, it’s about how the hell Rick survived without fluids or hospital support. AMC actually answered that in a roundabout way, with a webisode titled “The oath.” That webisode introduces us to a character named Gale Marcones, a doctor who remained at the hospital Rick was in even when the outbreak began.

In short, this selfless doctor is the main reason Rick managed to stay alive during his coma. So even within the realm of something as unrealistic as a zombie apocalypse, AMC and the creative team behind the show put some thought into how Rick survived, even if there wasn’t room to show that in the show itself.

As mentioned above, “The Walking Dead” universe is now quite expansive. It includes several shows, some of which only aired for a short time. like the 2022 anthology show “Tales of the Walking Dead,” which had only one season. Then there’s “Fear the Walking Dead,” a show that was remarkably successful. It was the first spin-off of the main series and, to date, the most fruitful for AMC by far.

“Fear the Walking Dead” ran for eight seasons and the final episode will air in late 2023.. The show focused on a new cast of characters in a new setting. While the main series took place primarily in and around Atlanta, Georgia, the spin-off takes place in Los Angeles, California, and shows us what happened at the beginning of the outbreak in one of the most populated cities in the world. It really has nothing to do with Rick Grimes, but there is the question of when during the events of the show Rick wakes up from his coma.

the people of uproxx He did a breakdown of the franchise’s timeline in 2019 to help clarify a few things for viewers. Day 0 is essentially the beginning of “Fear the Walking Dead,” when zombies start appearing for the first time. The outlet then sets the date of Rick’s awakening at day 59. That lines up with Kirkman’s timeline, as Rick ended up in the hospital after the zombies started showing up, but before the problem arose. became really huge. The outlet then describes the “Fear the Walking Dead” season 3 finale as occurring on day 64.

Using that timeline, we can estimate within a day or two that Rick woke up from his coma around episode 10 of season 3 of “Fear the Walking Dead,” which was titled “The Diviner.” In short, Rick’s journey began halfway across the country well into the run of this show.

“The Walking Dead” began life as a comic book published by Image beginning with the first issue in October 2003. Robert Kirkman was the book’s sole writer for the entire book, with Tony Moore handling the art for the first six issues. Subsequently, a series of artists lent their talents to the book until its end.

That end came somewhat abruptly in 2019 when Kirkman revealed, out of nowhere, that “The Walking Dead” would conclude with issue #193.. After 16 years, that was it. The show, meanwhile, began airing in 2010 after a somewhat lengthy development process. At one point, NBC was going to make the show, albeit in a version that would have been radically different than the one we got.

While The ending of the series “The Walking Dead” was different from the end of the comicsThere were many moments taken directly from the pages of the book, particularly in the earlier seasons. Rick’s coma was, in fact, something that was lifted directly from the source material. This wasn’t a plot device dreamed up by AMC or showrunner Frank Darabont for the sake of television. It was, rather, an attempt to make a faithful adaptation of the book.

Just for fun, it’s probably worth talking about a theory that’s been floating around for a while about Rick’s coma. For quite some time, many fans were convinced that the entirety of “The Walking Dead” only happened in Rick’s mind. The idea is that he was still in the hospital in a coma. Kirkman didn’t let that theory last too long and eventually debunked it personally.

“I must answer this: Rick is NOT still in a coma. The events of TWD are definitely happening,” Kirkman said in X/Twitter in 2014, debunking the then-popular fan theory. So Rick’s coma was real and is central to the vast, expansive universe that inspired this zombie comic.

“The Walking Dead” airs on AMC+, or you can get the entire series on Blu-ray through Amazon.