‘The Walking Dead:’ Showrunners Release Official Statement About Maggie’s Exit

SPOILER ALERT! The following article contains spoilers from season 9 of The Walking Dead. Read on only if you are current with the season.

If you’ve been following along with The Walking Dead‘s ninth season, then you know that a whole lot has changed during the first eight episodes. The show has experienced two separate time jumps, Andrew Lincoln (who starred as Rick Grimes) has exited the series as did Lauren Cohan. While Lincoln’s exit was widely known and well promoted, Cohan’s exit, on the other hand, was hardly acknowledged on the show.

It had been announced prior to the start of season nine that Cohan would be leaving in order to film her new series Whiskey Cavalier which has a season order at ABC. Though she would be leaving The Walking Dead, showrunner Angela Kang made it clear that her story would remain open-ended for a potential return.

Cohan’s departure from The Walking Dead had no fanfare, no bells and whistles, no epic send off. Her character, Maggie Rhee, simply went off and join another group. Maggie is currently spending her days, alive and well, with Georgie. If you blinked during the episode right after the six-year time jump, you would have missed the update on Maggie’s status completely.

Naturally, the lack of emphasis on her exit left fans upset, but on Sunday’s Talking Dead after that epic mid-season nine finale, Kang and Scott Gimple offered an official statement to the fans regarding Maggie’s departure.

Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick read the statement from Kang and Gimple to the audience to hopefully clear up any doubt which fans might be having about Cohan’s departure. The statement read:

[row]”Maggie’s last episode this season was 905, 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 the story to service that.”[/row]

At the very least, that should offer some comfort to fans of Cohan that Maggie will be returning to The Walking Dead world at some point in the future. Until then, it certainly seems that the series has plenty of action, terror and kick ass storylines in store to keep fans busy.

What do you think about Lauren Cohan’s seemingly temporary exit from The Walking Dead? Are you looking forward to her storyline continuing in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.