The Walking Dead fans were left picking their jaws up from the floor last Sunday when episode 6, “Who Are You Now?” dropped the bombshell that Michonne gave birth to another child following Rick Grimes’ disappearance six years prior (or the previous episode, to us viewers). We didn’t get to learn much about the kid though and it was left to us to decide that he must be the son of Rick.
Showrunner Angela Kang soon confirmed that this was correct in a subsequent interview, revealing that the child’s name was R.J. – Rick Junior. Despite the writer’s words, some fans still doubted his identity and believe there might be some twist in his parentage, partly because he seemed to be too young to have been Rick’s.
However, it looks like we can put any lingering doubts properly to bed now as the official Walking Dead Twitter account – the one that represents the brand owned by Skybound Entertainment rather than the AMC series – has made a point of saying that R.J. is definitely Rick’s son. While sharing the best reactions to the shock reveal in the episode, the tweet confirmed that the boy “is real, is around 5 years old, and you can call him R.J.”
Now that we know all this for sure, it’s definitely a tragic development that Rick will never meet his son, as he was flown away in a helicopter by Anne and his friends and family believe him to be dead. However, there’s always hope that he’ll reunite with Michonne and his children in Andrew Lincoln’s upcoming movie trilogy. We’ve even heard that it’s a possibility that Danai Gurira could show up in all, or at least one, of the films.
That remains unconfirmed for now, but in the meantime, be sure catch The Walking Dead season 9 every Sunday on AMC as the post-Grimes era continues to unfold.