‘The Walking Dead’ Stars Andrew Lincoln And Danai Gurira Gush Over Rick And Michonne’s Blossoming Romance

Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira are totally onboard with Rick and Michonne falling in love on “The Walking Dead.” The AMC stars dished on Richonne — the nickname fans gave the couple — saying their characters have been headed towards a relationship for a little while now.

In a behind-the-scenes interview for the upcoming “Walking Dead: The Complete Sixth Seasons,” Gurira says she thinks her character, Michonne, has been “in love” with Lincoln’s character, Rick, for some time. Lincoln agrees, saying that he thinks it was “natural” for the characters to explore a more intimate connection. “I kept thinking, ‘Of course, it’s been right in front of me all the time,’” he says in the video posted by People magazine. “It felt like a grown-up relationship that was always meant to be.”

Denise Huth, co-executive producer for “The Walking Dead,” also chimes in on Richonne saying that she thinks the romance is a “very natural progression” of their story. “These are two characters that have known each other for a very long time and have grown very important to each other, and there’s a great deep friendship between the two of them,” she explains. “Michonne is one of the few characters who can really call Rick out if she thinks he’s making a bad decision.”

While Rick and Michonne’s relationship may have caught quite a few fans by surprise, it’s actually something the show has been working towards for awhile. Last month, former “Walking Dead” star Laurie Holden dished on Richonne telling guests at New Jersey’s Walker Stalker Convention that it was originally supposed to her character, Andrea, who Rick fell in love with. Of course, fans of Robert Kirman’s comic books would already know this fact.

“I was supposed to end up with Rick,” she said (via Fan Fest). Andrea was killed off the show in Season 3. “I got the call at 10 o’clock the night before, while I was shooting, from the showrunner who is no longer a part of ‘The Walking Dead,’ saying that they couldn’t write the episode and that he was killing my character. … None of it was supposed to happen the way it did.”

Showrunner Scott Gimple explained during an interview with Entertainment Weekly that after the show killed off Andrea her comic book story was “broken up and given to several different characters.”

Whether “The Walking Dead” continues to explore Richonne on the upcoming Season 7 remains a mystery. As fans know, several of the characters’ lives — including Michonne and Rick — are in jeopardy thanks to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his barbed-wire bat, Lucille.