not in any immediately forthcoming episodes,” showrunner Angela Kang told The Hollywood Reporter.
Though Cohan is one of the leads in the new ABC midseason series Whiskey Cavalier, Kang hopes to bring her back for Season 10.
After Rick’s exit, the series jumped forward six years, and Maggie was no longer at Hilltop. Instead, she’d taken baby Hershel and left to join Georgie’s group of survivors.
“We will hopefully come back to Maggie’s story in Season 10,” the showrunner said to ComicBook.com. “Georgie’s group is definitely out there in [the] world doing some stuff, and I have some notion of what they’re up to. They may also be part of the universe in general.”
The series also said goodbye to Jesus in the midseason finale when he was killed by a Whisperer, new villains who wear the skin of walkers. Following the episode, Tom Payne and Kang spoke about his exit extensively both on Talking Dead and in various interviews.
Maggie’s exit may have been quiet compared to Rick and Jesus’, but both the actor and character deserved so much more. Cohan was part of the cast since Season 2, and for all the talk about her exit over hiatus, it came and went nearly silently. In fact, you may not have even noticed she was gone, instead expecting to see her again as each new episode revealed what various survivors were up to after the show’s time jump.
Of course, The Walking Dead could bring back Maggie’s character in the second half of Season 9, but unless the show is planning a huge surprise twist, that will probably just mean a letter included in one of the supply drops from Georgie’s group. Either way, it sad to see Maggie’s character disappear with so little fanfare.
What really hurt Maggie was that her last episode was also Lincoln’s. Rick was the main character of the series so the focus was always going to be him. But the fact that Laura Cohan’s farewell from the show came and went with barely a mention feels either extremely unfair or extremely suspicious.
Let’s hope its the latter, and Maggie turns up sooner than expected in the second half of The Walking Dead Season 10.
The Walking Dead Season 9 will return Sunday, February 10 at 9 p.m. on AMC.
