I don’t think any of us are ready for Michonne—our badass katana queen—to leave us quite yet.
Although our grief over Ms. Danai Gurira’s exit might linger beyond the end of season ten, she too will share in that pain. “I’ll miss the people the most,” she told The Knockturnal, “Second to that, I’ll miss being Michonne, who is such an amazing, brave character. I’m in awe of Michonne’s strength, and I think I’ll miss seeing her do her thing.”
Norman Reedus, effortlessly rocking the shades indoors.
Like deciding upon Gurira’s departure, tough decisions have been made in the Walking Dead’s writer’s room. Despite the relentless criticism many fans have hurled at the show since season seven, showrunner Angela Kang doesn’t seem at all fazed from the pressure—in fact, she and her dependable legion of creatives have grown leaps and bounds since taking the reins: “Being a showrunner is such a huge job, so it is kind of hard to pick one thing that I’ve learned the most from season nine,” she told us, pondering the question for a while. “I really learned to trust my collaborators in helping create the feel, the rhythms of the story. I certainly have my own sense of where I want the story to go, though what is innate in TV is the team aspect, which is honestly a privilege. I feel like I have writers I can trust, producers that are amazing, and cast that keeps us honest.” While critics and fans haven’t always loved every direction The Walking Dead crew has taken, its prominent position in the zeitgeist and longevity is a testament to the show’s cultural power—and at the very least, its ability to spark fairly powerful interest. “When I think about these shows that last for such a long time, it’s hard to say that it is one ingredient that sustains them,” Kang told us. “Is it the actors? Is it the writers? Is it the production? Is it the source material? It’s really all of it together. If you remove any piece, it all falls apart.”
Angela Kang doing her thing at PaleyFest NY 2019
Although the actors feel incredibly grateful for their time on the Walking Dead, it is a different story for their fictional counterparts. “If there was something Daryl would do differently, it is probably not punch Negan,” Reedus chuckled. “You see what these characters become without the pretense of social media, or class structure, or school, or a normal life at a normal job….you see these people have to step up to the plate in very harrowing ways and be people they would have to be in those terrible situations,” Reedus said solemnly.
The next episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead comes out next week on Sunday, October 13th.
