Explainers

Why did Maggie leave The Walking Dead? The return of Lauren Cohan

Maggie And Glenn
Steven Yeun and Lauren Cohan promoting The Walking Dead. Pic credit: Larry King/YouTube
Maggie And Glenn
Steven Yeun and Lauren Cohan promoting The Walking Dead. Pic credit: Larry King/YouTube

Maggie Greene is a character on The Walking Dead who joined the show in Season 2. As the primary group of survivors, led by Rick Grimes, tried to find a safe place, they wound up at the farm of Hershel Greene.

Hershel was a doctor who ended up being important in his own right, but one of his daughters was Maggie. She would have her screen time increased, marry Glenn Rhee, and eventually become the leader of Hilltop.

The character of Maggie went through a lot, much like her counterpart in The Walking Dead comics, including watching Negan murder Glenn and giving birth to a son she named Hershel. But as Season 9 approached, the actress who played Maggie had her eyes on other things.

Actress Lauren Cohan played Maggie from the beginning of Season 2 all the way through Season 9, Episode 5.

Why did Maggie leave The Walking Dead?

Lauren Cohan was interested in doing something new and she signed on to co-star in the ABC drama, Whiskey Cavalier. It was a spy thriller that also co-starred actor Scott Foley, but it only lasted one season on television.

The producers at TWD let Cohan go do her own thing, allowing the character of Maggie to be placed on the back burner, with the possibility she could be addressed again in later seasons. That is exactly what will take place now.

Within the show, Maggie’s last episode was also the last one for Rick, who has been played by Andrew Lincoln since the series premiere.

A big time jump within the timeline of the show took place after Rick destroyed a bridge to save his friends. He was helicoptered off to a mysterious location, while Maggie went to help Georgie (Jayne Atkinson).

Not a lot has been revealed about Georgie to the AMC audience, but she is known to live at a technologically advanced community and that Maggie has gone to help her out. How this all plays out could be very interesting to see on the show, especially if Maggie reappears during the back half of Season 10 or in the first Rick Grimes movie.

The return of Lauren Cohan is going to be important for The Walking Dead cast, especially because she had been a fan-favorite character on the show.

Maggie Greene has a lot of important source material from the TWD comic books that can still be covered, so there is a lot of development left for the character to make. Plus, having Hershel back and possibly a new love interest for Maggie could be intriguing.

The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.

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