“The Walking Dead”'s Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira Binged “Bridgerton ”to Prep for 'Romantic' Rick/Michonne Spinoff tchieu

"It's an epic love story," Lincoln teased of the upcoming series, which focuses on Michonne's search for Rick, with Gurira sharing that her character "has been closed off, but she's opening up again"

Andrew Lincoln is sharing the steamy study material he used to get ready for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.

In the Television Critic's Association panel for AMC on Tuesday, Lincoln, 50, opened up about the prep work he and Danai Gurira undertook to get romance ready for the "most romantic Walking Dead show" to date.

"We watched a lot of Bridgerton," the actor quipped, before adding, "This has been a long time coming, this story, and I love this character and this is a love story. This is essentially the DNA of the original episode was a man in search of his family"

Explaining how the team wanted to make the story "a bit more operatic," Lincoln described the long awaited series as "a beautiful thing."

"And Danai, I have to give credit was beating the drum for the love story," he added. "Everything we could squeeze out of every scene, she said, 'It's time, this is it.'"

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live will follow the epic love story between married pair Rick Grimes (Lincoln) and Michonne (Gurira), who first met on The Walking Dead. Both exited the series before it wrapped after 11 seasons in November 2022.

Rick had been presumed dead when he left The Walking Dead in season 9 after blowing up a bridge to prevent an invasion of walkers, but Michonne later learned her spouse had survived and set out to find him in season 10.

Related: A Complete Guide to Every 'Walking Dead' Spin-Off Show

The upcoming series will be the sixth spinoff to come from the The Walking Dead, itself an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard.

When Gurira was asked what she could "tease" about her character's development, the actress, 45, kept her cards close to her chest, though she gave viewers some insight on what they can expect.

"I think, you know, she definitely is going through quite a journey in this series," she said of Michonne. "There are a lot of things that happen that she does not expect. There are ways that she has to pivot and adjust that she does not expect. There is, you know, the journey to find her man... it's not an easy one, it comes in ways she could never have imagined."

"She's gone through a lot and made her very closed off," Gurira continued. "So she's opened up again and then you know, we'll see what happens."