It got lost in the shuffle of Rick’s final episode (at least until the made-for-TV movies), but Maggie also exited The Walking Dead this season. Actress Lauren Cohan decided to leave because she booked a lead role on ABC’s Whiskey Cavalier and because she felt too “comfortable” playing the Hilltop leader. “Eight years is a really long time to be in those emotional depths,” she said, “and it’s really fun for me because I never thought about drama as much when I started this career and I always kind of assumed I’d do like light fare.”
Fret not fans of “The Widow,” though: she’ll be back. Following the Walking Dead midseason finale, Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick read a statement from showrunner Angela Kang and CCO Scott Gimple about Cohan’s future. “Maggie’s last episode this season was 905,” it reads. “But it isn’t the end of Maggie’s story. We love Lauren Cohan and hope to have her back on the big program and or beyond, and we have built a story to service that.”
Kang previously said that “we’ll cross that bridge [when we get to it],” in regards to Cohan’s Whiskey Cavalier shooting schedule. “Lauren and I have had conversations, and she’s excited to come back, even if it’s not for a full season. We can work with that. That’s scheduling problems,” she said. “We’ll figure out the story. She’s great. We have a great relationship, and she still loves the show. Sometimes our actors need to spread their wings a little bit. We get that.”
The Walking Dead will return, with or without Cohan, in February 2019.
(Via Comic Book)