Anna Daniels
Soon after the drama leaked, AMC announced that Cohan would officially be leaving around the same time as leading man Andrew Lincoln (who portrayed Rick Grimes). Losing two of the show’s staple cast members in the same season seemed like an impossible blow for the franchise to absorb, but The Walking Dead emerged from its time jump with a leaner cast and a tighter focus on popular characters like Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus).
The series bid adieu to both Lincoln and Cohan, but the two stars (who had been with the series since seasons 1 and 2, respectively) received very different going away parties. Rick was given a proper send off in a helicopter after a heroic stand at the Alexandria Bridge, whereas Maggie simply vanished from the Hilltop without a trace. On the other side of the big season 9 time jump, she was already gone. Viewers got it second-hand that she had up and left the Hilltop with her son Hershel, never to be seen again.
At the time, Cohan pretty explicitly left the door open for a return after she had time to explore other aspects of her career. She told EW, “I think that we like finality, and it’s almost because of how much I like finality that I’m forcing myself not to have it and I’m forcing myself not to give it, because it wouldn’t be sincere. Any kind of guarantee that I could give could not be sincere to the fans, to my Walking Dead family, to myself… And it was like that on set. It was, ‘I love you guys, I’m gonna come visit.'”
At that time, she was already having discussions with Gimple and showrunner Angela Kang about the potential opportunities for Maggie to return to the story. With the season 10 finale on the horizon, it seems like the plot was finally ripe.
Written by: Looper
