Danai Gurira (Michonne) is leaving The Walking Dead

Just the other day, we reported that AMC had renewed The Walking Dead, its long-running zombie series, for a tenth season. This is despite falling ratings and a continued stream of cast members exiting the show, including Lauren Cohan (Maggie Greene) and frontman Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes). Now, The Hollywood Reporter has it that Danai Gurira, who’s played the katana-wielding badass Michonne since season 3, is on her way out as well.

Although it won’t be immediate. Gurira and AMC couldn’t come to an agreement on a new contract, but Michonne will still appear in a handful of episodes scattered across season 10. Showrunner Angela Kang and her team of writers may have Michonne leave the group voluntarily, they might kill her, they might just significantly reduce her screentime and act like nothing’s wrong…it’s hard to tell.

One thing the writers could do is integrate Michonne into the three Walking Dead movies AMC is going to shoot later this year. The first of those films, at least, will center around Rick Grimes, so there’s a chance those two crazy kids could reunite. Still, in the longterm, this is another blow to the original show. Stars Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) and Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier) have signed extremely lucrative deals to stick around for at least another three years, but will it be enough?

With so many cast members leaving, conventional wisdom might say it’s time to wrap this thing down, but AMC seems to want to do the opposite, with former Walking Dead showrunner now presiding over what the network is calling the Walking Dead universe. “Over the next several years, we’re going to be doing specials, new series are quite a possibility, high-quality digital content and then some content that defies description at the moment,” Gimple told THR back in November of last year. “We’re going to dig into the past and see old characters. We’re going to introduce new characters and new situations.”

Either AMC has a bunch of awesome tricks up its sleeve, or it’s headed for a rough landing. Stay tuned.

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As for Danai, she’s in a good place. She made a big splash as Wakandan warrior Okoye in Black Panther, reprised her role in Avengers: Infinity War and will very probably feature in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame, since her character was one of the few heroes not vaporized by Thanos at the end. That gig alone will support until from now until doomsday. She’s also active on the stage, and received a Tony nomination for writing the 2016 play Eclipsed. She’ll be fine. The Walking Dead? I dunno. Still, the second half of season 9 premieres this Sunday.

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