Yahoo News Is The Walking Dead going to kill off Maggie?
There have been a lot of rumours regarding the fate of Lauren Cohan and her character Maggie on The Walking Dead ever since news broke in February that the actress was yet to sign up for a ninth season of AMC's monster hit.
Is she leaving? If so, how? And what might that mean for the show? Never fear, because Digital Spy is here with a handy step-by-step explainer to Cohan's current status, and how Maggie's potential exit might play out.
What's the deal with Lauren Cohan's Walking Dead salary?
Two months back, it emerged that Cohan's contract negotiations had hit a snag: if she was to return to The Walking Dead as Hilltop queen Maggie Rhee, Cohan was reportedly asking for a salary bump that would bring her pay closer to that of male co-leads Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus.
The situation was complicated by the fact that Cohan is a hot property, with other networks outside AMC looking to poach her for their new TV pilots.
A short while later, she was said to have rejected the pay offers being put her way and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, was "actively looking for her next job". In fact, she found one – more on that later. (A quick note: Cohan wasn't looking to earn the same as Lincoln and Reedus, just to be paid something closer to their earnings.)
Will Lauren Cohan appear as Maggie in The Walking Dead season 9?
The good news is... yes, Cohan will be back on our screens when season nine launches in October – though that wasn't always a sure thing.
Back in February, The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple acknowledged that Maggie might vanish from the show if a new contract deal couldn't be worked out. "These things do happen in TV," he said. "But we're talking. Lauren is an actor who has such intuition and such power. Hopefully, it all works out."
It appears that a deal which satisfied Cohan was eventually hashed out behind closed doors, because in April she confirmed that she was "going back" to The Walking Dead, adding: "There's a lot more Maggie story to tell."
Deadline later clarified that she would definitely appear in six of the eight episodes making up the first half of season nine, which is expected to air from October through to December.
What is Whiskey Cavalier – and what does it mean for Maggie?
However, there's a catch.
In late February, Cohan accepted one of those job offers being thrown her way and was cast in ABC's cop sitcom Whiskey Cavalier, in which she would play CIA agent Frankie Trowbridge. The pilot episode follows Trowbridge and FBI agent Will Chase (Scott Foley) as they "navigate saving the world – and each other".
Is Lauren Cohan leaving The Walking Dead?
Possibly.
Yes, she's confirmed to appear in six upcoming episodes, but her involvement in season nine's back half is less certain.
If Whiskey Cavalier is ordered to series by ABC, Cohan still has time to schedule in those six Walking Dead episodes, but won't be able to return to the show full-time.
(Of course, if ABC passes on Whiskey Cavalier, then there's no clash of filming dates and Maggie could potentially be sticking around. Alternatively, Whiskey Cavalier could recast Cohan's role ahead of filming a full series, but that's a whole other tricky and potentially expensive deal that would need to be negotiated.)
What is going to happen to Maggie? Could she die?
If Whiskey Cavalier does live, will Maggie die?
Given that this is The Walking Dead, where offing major characters is a standard, and that the show would (in that situation) only have six episodes to wrap up the character's storyline... well, it doesn't bode well.
Further pointing towards a possible demise for Maggie are the events of season eight's finale, which saw the character furious at Rick (Lincoln) for his decision to allow Glenn's killer Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to live.
In private, she tells her lieutenant Jesus (Tom Payne): "We're gonna bide our time, wait for our moment… and then we're gonna show him." (Daryl, for some reason, also decides to join in on the coup.)
Maggie pitting herself against Rick gives the Walking Dead writers an easy path to her exit, if they choose to take it. Not many characters have gone up against Rick and survived.
In the original comic books, Maggie is still very much alive and remains a prominent character, playing a major role in the Whisperer war and beyond.
But can we take any reassurance from that? Probably not, given that the TV series has previously killed off a number of characters – Carol's daughter Sophia, and of course Carl Grimes – who live on in the source material.
Besides, if Lauren Cohan does opt to leave The Walking Dead, then killing off Maggie might end up being the only satisfactory route open to the writers. Having her just disappear a la Heath (Corey Hawkins) would be doing a disservice to a hugely popular character.
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