We are just two weeks away from the return of The Walking Dead where it will finish out season 8, but there are some rumblings that the road ahead to season 9 might be a little rocky for one cast member in particular.
That would be Lauren Cohan, Maggie, who is reportedly struggling to come to terms with AMC about a deal that would keep her on for season 9, which will start filming a short while after season 8 ends. While there have been rumblings about this before, a new report from THR about which actors and actresses are most sought-after for this upcoming pilot season, Cohan has an entire paragraph dedicated to her Walking Dead drama, and how other shows and networks are in hot pursuit of her:
“Elsewhere, The Walking Dead star Lauren Cohan is actively looking for her next role and has been getting offers left and right this pilot season. The actress, who has played Maggie since season two of the zombie drama, does not have a deal in place to return to the AMC series for its recently announced ninth season. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Cohan and her agents are not happy with the offers that have been on the table from AMC. Although Cohan is not seeking salary parity with male leads Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus, her camp and AMC have been engaged in a months-long negotiation that remains far apart. Insiders suggest that Cohan is actively looking for her next job and not trying to use the pilot casting process to force AMC's hand as the actress' camp remains frustrated by AMC's lowball offers.”
This is much different than “ah Cohan just hasn’t signed a contract yet,” if she’s “actively looking for her next role.” That suggests a level of seriousness to the idea that The Walking Dead could lose Maggie completely if they don’t pay her enough.
This would be a very weird situation, given that Maggie’s departure would be a huge break from the comics in an era when the show just made a huge break from the comics (spoilers: Carl’s death). Maggie remains an important fixture in the comics for years as the leader of the Hilltop, and cutting her out would require even more reworking of storylines going forward.
While I wouldn’t expect Cohan to get pay parity with Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus (by the way, is Norman Reedus seriously getting paid as much as Andrew Lincoln? That seems very wrong), it’s a little hard not to take her side given that AMC is currently embroiled in two lawsuits about improperly paying people, and more recently everyone suspected that at least part of the reason Chandler Riggs was fired/killed off was because he was about to turn 18 and would be due for a contract negotiation himself. Or if it wasn’t a reason, it was an added bonus, at the very least.
The problem with all this is that actually, I could see The Walking Dead continuing on without Maggie. I don’t think that’s Lauren Cohan’s fault. The show has given her precious little to actually do ever since Glenn’s death, sparring with Gregory and Simon in the Hilltop and…that’s it, really. As “the Widow,” she’s one of Negan’s most wanted, yet she feels relatively far down the list as far as important characters go. In terms of other actresses on the show, I’d say both Melissa McBride (Carol) and Danai Gurira (Michonne) are far more vital to The Walking Dead than she is.
But this report doesn’t make it sound like Cohan is desperate to stay. She’s been on the show since season 2, seven years now, and it stands to reason that she simply might want to leave to pursue other opportunities, as 16 episodes of The Walking Dead a year can be extremely time-consuming, as the rest of the cast (starring in little else, for the most part) can attest. And if she’s fielding a ton of different offers for new shows, I can see the appeal in her wanting to leave to pursue those options rather than sticking around to be the 6th most important character on The Walking Dead for a few more years if they’re not paying her enough to do it.
Again, if Cohan did walk away, this would be hugely disruptive to the long term storylines of the show, and if she didn’t return for season 9, presumably she’d be killed off, as would her and Glenn’s unborn baby, given that she's still in the earliest stages of her pregnancy. I have to believe that the show has plans for the baby, and killing off a pregnant Maggie would probably not sit well with fans who are already accusing the show of being overly brutal, even if it’s Cohan herself wanting to leave. But there’s really no other way to leave The Walking Dead, a show that rarely lets characters simply ride off into the sunset. The "kindest" death I could see for her might be Maggie dying in childbirth and her and Glenn's baby living on to be cared for by their friends.
There is still time for Cohan and AMC to find common ground, but the situation does sound pretty dire from these insider reports. Hopefully we’ll know more soon, but season 8 will be drawing to a close soon enough, and one way or another, this has to get sorted.
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