The Walking Dead may see Maggie return for season 10

The Walking Dead’s Lauren Cohan will make a return to the show for subsequent seasons even though the ninth season was set to be her last.

It’s so hard to say goodbye to good characters such as The Walking Dead’s Maggie Rhee and Rick Grimes. Over the course of eight seasons, we’ve watched them grow and have rooted for them from the comfort of our couches.

Fortunately, Lauren Cohan’s character Maggie will be making a come back even though the upcoming season was going to be her last. Comicbook.com spoke with showrunner Angela Kang who confirmed that Maggie’s arc isn’t finished.

"I’ll say first of all that we’ve still planned some more story with Maggie, Lauren wants to, it will be a little subject to her schedule but hopefully we have her back next season. We have always planned to have this great story with Maggie this season and I think we promised something. We wanted to pay off that promise. We definitely have a very strong Maggie arc."

Cohan’s exit comes as a result of landing a role on ABC’s Whiskey Cavalier. How often she will appear in the 10th season will depend on what her schedule allows. So far, Cohan has agreed to make the return, whenever possible, and that’s good enough for us.

Season 9 will show Maggie taking on a new role that is entirely different from the supportive character she has played through the years. For the first time, she will take a stance that is different from Rick Grime’s leadership because he allowed Negan to live. After terrorizing the post-apocalyptic masses and killing her husband, Glenn Rhee, Maggie is sick of taking orders and being disappointed by Rick’s decisions. The decision to spare Negan has hit a nerve, and as the leader of Hilltop, Maggie will be taking matters into her own hands.

According to an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cohan says that Maggie is coming into herself and sticking to what she believes in, even if it means going up against a friend. Rick’s inconsistencies have changed the way Maggie feels about him as a leader. He told her he would get justice for Negan killing Glenn and Abraham and he didn’t. And let’s not forget that he said when it was all over that he would follow Maggie. That’s another promise Rick doesn’t want to fulfill, per tension-filled previews.

Cohan says of Maggie’s relationship with Rick this season:

"I’m not gonna say she’s holding on to things towards just Rick per se, but she is realizing that she has to rely on herself and she has to make a decision she believes in and let the chips fall where they may. What we’re going to see in the first couple episodes is that she needs to take responsibility for the good and for the bad, and that means she has to dig deep and say, “What do I believe in and can I stand by it?” So that’s the journey that she goes on, and I think part of that is the realization in herself that Rick had said he’d follow her and he didn’t."

Kang also told Comicbook.com that after Maggie’s departure the show would have some exciting new conflicts. Hilltop is going to feel the brunt of those changes because they are going to lose their leader. Once Maggie is gone, Hilltop will have to figure out how to move forward and what takes place there may not be all roses.

Kang also says that Maggie’s exit will make room for new trouble:

"I think that’s been, again, it’s just something we wanted to do right by that character, but again it also opens up some interesting opportunities for other characters when that character is gone for reasons that will be explained in the story. That’s part of the story going forward, is what’s happening at Hilltop? How do people with Maggie not being there?"

I would say this should be a solid confirmation that Maggie won’t die in season 9 since she will return the following season, but I wouldn’t bet any money on it. The Walking Dead loves to surprise their fans, and there is no guarantee that they won’t kill Maggie and have her come back in flashbacks. Even so, let’s look at the bright side of things and hope that Maggie makes it through this new season unscathed.

Although Cohan isn’t the only cast member of The Walking Dead taking a bow after season 9, she is the only one that will be returning. Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes, is also set to exit but the show runners confirmed that he’s definitely not making any returns to the show. That can only mean that Grimes is dying at the season. It won’t, however, be that last time that Lincoln will be associated with The Walking Dead. Lincoln plans on returning in a directing capacity.

Maggie’s return to the show after her departure is bittersweet. It is the end of an era where two of the most relevant characters of the series won’t be a part of the ongoing story anymore.

Check out Maggie and Rick on The Walking Dead when it returns for season 9 on October 7 on AMC.