Walking Dead’s Wolves Leader Owen Was The First Major Villain Rick Never Met

The Walking Dead’s Wolves leader Owen was the primary antagonist during the first half of season 6, but oddly enough he and Rick Grimes never came face-to-face. As the main hero of the story, it makes sense that Rick Grimes has eventually had a showdown with most of the major Walking Dead villains. From stabbing his frenemy Shane and slitting Negan’s throat to his jugular-biting brawl with the Claimers, Rick’s various confrontations with villains have provided the show with some of its best moments.

Rick Grimes did come across the Wolves’ handiwork during the latter half of The Walking Dead season 5. In the mid-season premiere “What Happened And What’s Going On”, Rick and his group traveled to Noah’s home at the Shirewilt Estates where they found his family brutally killed and the message “Wolves not far” spray-painted on the walls. Likewise, Wolves leader Owen knew of Rick’s existence in a roundabout way when he went through Aaron’s backpack in the season 5 finale “Conquer” and found photos of Rick and the Alexandria community.

However, when Owen and the Wolves launched their attack on Alexandria in The Walking Dead season 6 episode 2, Rick was busy dealing with a quarry full of walkers headed straight for the community. Later on, he had the displeasure of dealing with a few members of the Wolves but while their leader Owen was in Morgan’s custody, Rick was a tad preoccupied fending off the walker horde that had descended on Alexandria. Rick didn’t actually get a chance to confront Owen before he died in “No Way Out”, making him the first major villain Rick never met.

There’s a good reason why Rick didn’t face off against this particular Walking Dead villain and that’s because Owen was an antagonist meant more for Morgan than the show’s main hero. Owen and Morgan were polar opposites: while the latter returned to The Walking Dead a changed man who refused to commit murder, the former demonstrated an almost complete lack of remorse and was willing to kill anybody. Narratively, Owen was Morgan’s nemesis so it made sense most of his interactions were with Morgan rather than Rick.

Obviously, there have been other villains that Rick hasn’t met since Andrew Lincoln left The Walking Dead in season 9. By the time Alpha and the Whisperers arrived on the scene, it had been around six years since Rick was whisked off on Jadis’ mystery helicopter and it’s unlikely he’ll meet current villains the Reapers either. However, with a Rick Grimes movie on the horizon no doubt Walking Dead viewers will see their favorite hero face off against more villains in the not-too-distant future.