After 11 seasons and 177 episodes, The Walking Dead aired its final episode this past Sunday night. While many characters from the franchise may never be heard from again, there are some integral members who will continue on in planned spin-offs. One of those characters is Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan), who will star in The Walking Dead: Dead City. The spin-off follows Maggie and Negan Smith (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to New York City as they face a new set of challenges in a post-apocalyptic world. Lauren Cohan shared a few details (via EW) about the spin-off, involving the timeframe of the show and the future of her character.
“When we pick up in New York, it’s a few years later. So in my mind, there is sort this hopeful renewal at the end of the season of going out and exploring in the ways that we’ve seen her go do before,” said Cohan. “But I think this time with her family it’s about staying in communication about their joint plan to do this and forge new roads. And family means Daryl and Carol and everybody else. And so that is what that means to me.
RELATED: The Walking Dead Stars Tease Powerful and Emotional Ending
The thought of Maggie teaming up with Negan was once considered impossible due to their violent history. At the beginning of Season 7, Negan kills Maggie’s husband, Glenn, with a barbed wire baseball bat. During the series finale, Negan finally apologized to Maggie for killing her husband. Although Maggie doesn’t forgive Negan, she’s going to try and see Negan in a different light.
“And some of those goodbyes were hellos, because obviously we know Maggie and Negan will go on, and there was what seemed like some resolution,” said Cohan. “I think for Maggie, she definitely wanted to begin to open the door to that grief so that she could process it. And part of that is beginning to address it with Negan instead of avoiding it.”
The Walking Dead: Dead City is scheduled to arrive on AMC in April 2023.
Are you excited to see Lauren Cohan in The Walking Dead: Dead City? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: The Walking Dead: Compendium One