‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 Air Date, Character Update: How Likely Is It That Maggie Will Be Returning?

It’s going to be so much different now that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) will not be returning after “The Walking Dead” Season 9. For eight seasons, Grimes led his beleaguered crew past threats both dead and alive, with the latter posing more danger to them than the former.

But it’s not only Rick Grimes who is going to leave in “The Walking Dead” Season 9 but Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan) as well, CarterMatt reported. It’s already been confirmed that Maggie will not be returning for the next installment as she opted to exit the post-apocalyptic horror-drama after her renegotiations over her contract turned sour.

Instead, Cohan signed with ABC's "Whiskey Cavalier," a spy drama/comedy where she’s slated to lead the show. Her signing sealed the door for any possibilities that Maggie will be returning in “The Walking Dead” Season 9.

Cohan – who will be filming only six episodes of the series – will see a somewhat similar phasing out process to what Lincoln’s character will be getting. Of course, details regarding this will only be revealed once “The Walking Dead” Season 9 is released, which is going to be on Oct. 7.

However, there’s still a chance that Maggie will be returning as showrunners can still write her back, albeit this would be in the series’ 10th installment if that ever happens. “The Walking Dead” Season 9 can still go on without Maggie as her role in pushing the plot forward is not as heavily involved compared to that of Rick Grimes.

Cohan herself said that Maggie’s story is “open-ended” so there might still be that possibility. How likely that possibility is is the next question. Right now, the showrunners have turned to Norman Reedus to be the next leader for the “The Walking Dead” Season 9, paying the rugged actor north of $20 million to be the number one option on the call sheet.