Lauren Cohan will return as Maggie in ‘The Walking Dead’ as the show was officially renewed for season 11 on AMC on Saturday…
Lauren Cohan is coming home to ‘The Walking Dead’.
The actress who played survivor Maggie Rhee from season 2 until season 9, left ‘The Walking Dead’ amidst a contract dispute with the series and ultimately signed onto star on her own show ‘Whiskey Cavalier’ on ABC. Unfortunately, ‘Whiskey Cavalier’ was cancelled after only one season and with that, Cohan went back to the negotiating table to begin talks with ‘The Walking Dead’ on a return.
‘The Walking Dead’ was officially renewed for season 11 on Saturday at New York Comic Con and Cohan made a surprise appearance to announce that she had signed back on as a series regular for the show.
“I’m so excited to surprise the fans,” Cohan said about her return. “I know we left Maggie Rhee up in the air and I can’t wait to bring this to them. I’ve always been a big fan of surprises. My family lives between England and America, so my whole life is about how to make an elaborate plan and not spoil it. I’m really happy. Angela [Kang], Scott [M. Gimple] and I have been talking about how we could make this work and everything just aligned. I’m super excited to see what this next chapter of Maggie will be.”
While nothing has been confirmed, it’s possible Cohan will make a brief appearance towards the tail end of ‘The Walking Dead’ season 10, which debuts on AMC this Sunday night.
When Maggie last appeared on the show, she had taken over as the leader of the Hilltop but sought revenge on Negan after he was imprisoned for his many crimes rather than killed. When Maggie took it upon herself to kill Negan, she ultimately decided against it when seeing the shell of a man that he had become after he was taken prisoner. Maggie, along with her son Herschel, then decided to leave the communities and join a woman named Georgie, who is attempting to resurrect some kind of society in the wake of the zombie apocalypse.
Cohan expects her character to be much different than the one who left ‘The Walking Dead’ a season ago when she returns.
“There are definitely things she will have picked up on the road and there’s also the relationship with her son and how growing with him has affected her. Or even what has been happening, I’m in a liberated position to actually not know enough to give spoilers at this point!” Cohan said. “It’s a nice surprise to come back to these changes, understand what motivates her return, what happened while she was out there and who’s still going to be here when she returns. We have a lot to unpack.”
‘The Walking Dead’ will return for season 10 on Sunday night with Cohan returning to the series full time for season 11 in 2020.
In addition to that revelation, ‘The Walking Dead’ also announced some casting news as Paola Lazaro — best known for roles in ‘Lethal Weapon’ and ‘SMILF” — has been cast as Juanita Sanchez aka ‘The Princess’ aka ‘The Princess of Pittsburgh’, a popular character from the original ‘Walking Dead’ comic books. ‘The Princess’ pops up late in the comic book’s run, which could indicate that ‘The Walking Dead’ is moving towards a potential series finale in the somewhat near future.
In the comics, ‘The Princess’ meets up with Michonne and the other survivors when they’re out on a mission and she eventually returns to become part of the same community. There’s no word when she will first appear in ‘The Walking Dead’ TV series but now the part has definitely been cast.
