‘The Walking Dead’ Confirms Maggie Will Leave, But Not Die …

The Walking Dead is preparing to say goodbye to two of its core characters in season 9, a fact AMC has actually taken to advertising in promotional materials, given how impossible its been to keep it a secret.

Rick, Andrew Lincoln, is leaving for good, which probably means his exit will involve him dying. There are new reports that Lincoln could be back to direct in the future, but Rick Grimes himself wont be returning.

The situation with Maggie isa little more complicated. Lauren Cohan is also set to depart The Walking Dead sometime this season, but her exist is going to be somehow purposefully open-ended, unlike Ricks. New showrunner Angela Kang spoke to Comicbook.com about this rather odd plan recently:

"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," Kang said. "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."

No one yet knows how many episodes Maggie is in this season, but watching at least the pilot, a major plot point seems to be that she butts heads with Ricks philosophy of governance of the communities, but thats all Ill say about that.

But what Im most curious about is how exactly you script an open ended exit in the world of The Walking Dead, one that will disappear Maggie through most of this season and possibly have her return for season 10.

There really are no open-ended exits in The Walking Dead. Weve only really seen this happen once with Heath, a minor character who simply disappeared without a trace years ago, but weve seen no indication he actually died. But with Maggie it would be quite a different case, given that shes the leader of an entire community and a major character on the show. How exactly does she vanish in a way that makes sense?

In season 9, Maggie will have her baby, little Herschel, so I suppose they could just pull some sort of Im going to go back to my family farm to raise him for a while thing, like when Carol when to live by herself away from everyone for a while (though she was still on the show). I suppose she could end up kidnapped by the Whisperers or some other new set of villains, and be offscreen because of that. Season 9 features multiple time jumps, so really anything could happen in those interims, I suppose. But it would be a little weird to return after one and be like So crazy that Maggie just peaced out huh?

Much of Maggies fate probably depends on the success of her new ABC show, Whiskey Cavalier. If that turns out to be a big hit, she may swing by The Walking Dead next season for a brief appearance and then a subsequent permanent exit. If Whiskey ends up cancelled, perhaps she permanently rejoins the cast.

Its a weird situation, but Im curious to see it unfold in season 9. Stay tuned.

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'The Walking Dead' Confirms Maggie Will Leave, But Not Die ...