Lauren Cohan confirms return for season 9 of The Walking Dead
By Derek Johns
After much speculation over her future on The Walking Dead, Lauren Cohan confirmed she would return for season 9 at CinemaCon.
Cohan’s future on the show has been somewhat up in the air for the last couple of months over some lengthy negotiations with AMC over a pay raise.
The talks had been contentious enough that Cohan accepted a role in the ABC pilot Whiskey Cavalier. Some have seen as an attempt to get her ducks in a row in the event that negotiations broke down.
"UPDATE: The official deal is for Cohan to appear in six episodes from TWD‘s eight-episode fall half-season. If her pilot for Whiskey Cavalier is picked up, that could be the end of Maggie. If the pilot is not picked up, Cohan can work out a deal to return to The Walking Dead full-time after that."
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Cohan’s confirmation is no doubt especially important for the show, given how season 8 ended with Maggie leading a plot against Rick.
This will likely also come as a relief to AMC given the fan base Maggie has. If negotiations hadn’t worked out, not only would season 9 likely have had to go through some serious rewrites but writing Maggie out of show would likely suffer some execution problems.
Unceremoniously writing off a fan favorite character with what would most likely be a simple off-screen death would likely rub viewers the wrong way (or what’s left of them at this point).
Now that Cohan has confirmed her return to The Walking Dead though, that now puts a question mark as to the fate of Whiskey Cavalier. It’s unclear whether Cohan would be able to fit the show into her schedule and since the pilot hasn’t been officially picked up, that may end being a moot point.
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Also, if ABC doesn’t think she would be able to do Whiskey Cavalier anyway, they may simply choose to cut their losses and let the show die.
Are you excited for Cohan’s return for season 9? What do you think will happen with Whiskey Cavalier? Give us your thoughts in the comment section.