After months and months of speculation, it was finally confirmed this week that Maggie will be back in The Walking Dead season 10, as revealed by Lauren Cohan herself during the TWD panel at New York Comic-Con. The actress followed up the news by speaking more about her return on the AMC blog as well, saying that she’s “excited” to be making a comeback, stressing that she enjoys surprising the fans.
It seems the star is as thrilled to return as the rest of us are and commented that she can’t wait to see what “the next chapter” of Maggie’s story will be, saying:
“I’m so excited to surprise the fans. 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. [Laughs] I’m really happy. Angela [Kang, showrunner], Scott [M. Gimple, TWD chief content officer] 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.”
We last saw Mrs. Rhee in the fifth episode of season 9, the same outing that also had Rick Grimes vanish in a helicopter. Andrew Lincoln’s exit was immediately followed up by news of his return in his own spinoff movie, but Cohan’s future in the franchise was left unclear, due to her jumping ship to ABC’s Whiskey Cavalier. With that show getting cancelled after one season though, fans had hoped Cohan could fit in a guest spot on season 10. Showrunner Angela Kang had previously promised that they were trying to make it work and now we know they did and Maggie will be back in no time.
The explanation for Maggie’s off-screen departure during the time-jump is that she’d left with her son Hershel to help Georgie’s group set up a new community somewhere else. It was the sort of explanation that gives her an open pass to show up again at any point and she should be a useful ally to have in battling the Whisperers when she returns in The Walking Dead season 10.