Danai Gurira is excited the The Walking Dead will focus on female friendships and leadership

Danai Gurira sat down with EW to talk about season 9 of The Walking Dead and what the new season means for Michonne.

We love Danai Gurira, and many of the characters she has played. Michonne from The Walking Dead and Okoye from Black Panther are both interesting, well-rounded, strong, smart women, and Danai brings such skill and passion to these roles.

As The Walking Dead season 9 is set to premiere on October 7th on AMC, Danai sat down with Entertainment Weekly to talk about female empowerment on the show.

New showrunner Angela Kang has said previously that the season will set its focus on “really great stories with the women in our show.” The season will also feature a time jump that will automatically shift the story.

In the interview, Gurira talks about how this time shift allows the characters and the audience to start anew and bring a new kind of hope to the world of The Walking Dead.

"There is a lot of movement in this because truth is kind of impossible in the sense of the world we are now in. Things can go any which way, so it feels very hopeful and volatile at the same time, so there is a healing energy to this season and to this sort of interaction that we have — There’s a very interesting hopeful yet volatile energy to the season. It’s really fulfilling."

Michonne is definitely a favorite amongst fans, and she has been with the show across many seasons now. We are definitely big fans of the character and how she has grown over the seasons. In the interview, Gurira was asked about what to expect from Michonne in the new season. She noted that at the start of season 9, she and the other survivors are energized and filled with hope. But…

"But you know, things happen. At the core of Michonne, there’s a ton of pragmatism as well. And we’ll see how that plays out and shifts a lot of things. She’s a pragmatist as well as a hopeful determined member of the leadership of the group. In the attempt to build things, you see her trying to figure out what that is gonna look like. She gets to use her mind in a way that you don’t really get to use when you’re just fighting."

This season is also going to focus more on the relationship between Maggie and Michonne and potential conflicts between the two of them, and Gurira is excited about this, too.

"I think it’s really cool that these women have been through many things together, they’re very, very close, and I love the navigation of really exploring female friendships and connections this way, because I don’t think you get to see it done the way we get to do it. You don’t see it very often with female friendships. They don’t really explore women who respect each other, who respect each other’s power, each other’s choices, respect each other in so many ways, but are not seeing eye to eye on major fundamental issues. What does that look like? And it is really enjoyable to navigate that with Lauren. Very, very interesting, and very enjoyable."

We have to say we can’t wait to see more of this dynamic as we have watched these two characters grow into this world and come into their own. As Andrew Lincoln is set to leave the show for good this season, we are excited to see how female leadership roles might become even more important.

What are you most excited to see in season 9 of The Walking Dead?