The Walking Dead already planning for Lauren Cohan to eventually return

When The Walking Dead actress Lauren Cohan signed on to star in the new ABC show Whiskey Cavalier earlier this year, fans correctly speculated it was only a short matter of time before she would move on from TWD.  

Despite the fact that Maggie is still a slight ways off from officially leaving The Walking Dead, plans are already being made for an eventual return.

During a set visit from Comicbook.com, showrunner Angela Kang confirmed there were still plans for Maggie in the future.  

"“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.  We have always planned to have this greaty 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.”"

Now it’s been no secret that Cohan’s farewell will reportedly be far more open-ended than most characters to presumably leave the door open for a comeback at some point.  It is slightly surprising though that Kang would choose to make that plain so soon. Then again AMC has a rather spotty record of keeping plot twists a secret.

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Now to be fair, there’s good enough reason to take the open-ended approach on both sides.   The success and failure of network shows are something of a crapshoot and it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Whiskey Cavalier comes to an end prematurely and it would be good for Cohan to have a The Walking Dead return option in her back pocket just in case.  

As for AMC, it will probably to give some hope of Maggie coming back.  Fans have been pretty vocal the last couple years whenever a fan favorite ends up getting killed off and killing her off so close to Rick’s exit would likely alienate the audience even further.   

Season 9 of The Walking Dead will premiere on AMC October 7th.  

Whiskey Cavalier will premiere on ABC sometime in 2019.  

Do you think Lauren Cohan will end up coming back to The Walking Dead?  Give us your thoughts in the comment section.