Although Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comics have concluded, there’s still a couple of seasons of runway left in the comics for the television series to explore before it goes off to do its own thing. One character from Kirkman’s comics who will make his debut in season ten of The Walking Dead is Dante, as showrunner Angela Kang told Entertainment Weekly.
“We’ll be meeting the character Dante from the comics. He is this roguish, fast-talking, sometimes charming, sometimes annoying guy who can sometimes put his foot in his mouth, but is an interesting presence in the comics.”
The wrinkle here, however, is that Dante was also a love interest to Maggie, as well as her right-hand man at The Hilltop. He also played a role in the upcoming Whisperers War. Of course, Maggie is not on The Walking Dead at the moment, so the part where Dante relentlessly pursues Maggie in the comics will either have to be excised, or he will have to pursue someone else.
Alternatively, he could actually end up pursuing Maggie, because Angela Kang also suggests that Lauren Cohan could come back to the series next season, following the cancellation of her ABC action-comedy Whiskey Cavalier. “I’m not sure if I can say much about it right now actually,” Kang told EW. “I’ll just say that we’re working on it.”
That may mean a return to the parent series, or it could mean joining the trilogy of The Walking Dead movies with Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes and potentially Danai Gurira’s Michonne. If she does return to the parent series, she’d likely make an instant impact, as she’d still be the third most veteran character on the show behind Daryl and Carol even after leaving the series for much of season 9.
We’ll find out more once The Walking Dead returns in October.
