The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln Stars in New Project From Rockstar Games Co-Founder

Sci-fi audio fiction thriller A Better Paradise premieres June 10.

By Haley Miller

Andrew Lincoln who is most known for his portrayal of Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead universe has lined up his next project -- an audio fiction series from the creator of Rockstar Games, A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath. The 12-episode series is produced by Absurd Ventures in partnership with QCODE Media.

Lincoln returned to his roots as the iconic Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live alongside his screen partner Danai Gurira. It was the first time the two were on-screen with one another since Grimes' disappearance in season 9. Lincoln would depart the series in an effort to be closer to his family. In a promotional interview for The Ones Who Live, He spoke to Comicbook about returning to the show and how it took "years" of planning to lock down.

"We wrote it, so we knew that we wanted…We've been working for a couple of years and meeting in conference rooms in hotels, spitballing these ideas," Lincoln told Comicbook. "And we said, well, how, what is the most insane reunion? Can we imagine? What about this? What about that? And we just thought, well, this, we landed on this and it felt also the structure as you know, is quite unique with the time frames that we've got these two people that have left the show in different time frames. We need to work that out. But also we just thought it would be the most thrilling, insane, emotional reunion. And we're glad that it was a shock."

What is A Better Paradise About?

"Set in the near future, A Better Paradise tells the story of the ill-fated development of an ambitious but addictive digital game-world project led by inventor and psychologist, Dr. Mark Tyburn," an official description reads. "As the advanced software they developed began delivering unexpected and disturbing results, the team fell apart under strange circumstances and the project was abandoned. The game world and the super-intelligence within were discarded, left dormant and undiscovered. Until now."

Lincoln will be joined by Shamier Anderson (John Wick: Chapter 4), Paterson Joseph (Wonka) and Rain Spencer (The Summer I Turned Pretty, Good Girl Jane) among others. Dan Houser departed Rockstar Games in 2020 where he then founded Absurd Ventures in 2021. 

A Better Paradise marks the first release from Absurd Ventures, and casting Lincoln is certainly a great way to kickstart things. "I have always loved the intimate experience of audiobooks, radio and podcast dramas," Houser said in a press release. "Audio fiction feels like a really compelling way to tell the story of the A BETTER PARADISE universe and the characters within it." 

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Added QCODE CEO Rob Herting, "We are incredibly excited to be a production partner to Dan and the Absurd Ventures team, who bring a completely unique voice to the audio fiction medium. Their record in storytelling is legendary, and they have created a universe and a series that lives up to that high standard."

A Better Paradise premieres on all audio platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music June 10.

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