The Walking Dead stars preview new character arcs in extra episodes

The Walking Dead is finally returning to our screens. Not for season 11, but instead for six additional episodes of season 10. These episodes will probe a bunch of unanswered questions, filling in gaps as we head towards the show’s final act. As well as the much-anticipated Negan origin story and the continuation of the Commonwealth storyline, we’ll learn also about where Maggie (Lauren Cohan) has been during her time away.

Maggie has been an integral character in The Walking Dead ever since her introduction in season 2. Having survived all this time, she’s seen more than her share of harrowing stuff, from watching her father brutally killed by the Governor to witnessing her partner Glenn beaten to death by Negan.

The Walking Dead jumped forward in time after the season 9 episode “What Comes After,” which also happened to be Rick’s final episode. Somewhere in that period, Maggie left the group. She later returned for a cameo appearance in the season 10 finale, “A Certain Doom,” but fans were left wondering where she’d been all this time. Thankfully, all will be revealed in the new episode “Home Sweet Home.”

“It was just a very exciting reunion on so many levels,” Cohan recently told Digital Spy. “Angela [Kang] and I had talked about how we’re going to do it, when we’re going to do it, and what it’s going to look like, for a long time. So for it to be in actuality was just creatively fun for us.”

"It’s always fun to feel like you’ve got a bit of a secret you’re going to slowly reveal to people as to where she’s been, what she’s been up to, and how she’s been changed, all of which were very, very twisty, and deep and dark in many ways. That was something that I’m looking forward to playing and showing."

Sounds ominous, right?

Cohen also talked to NME about what’s next for Maggie, including how she’ll deal with Negan, who has become more a part of the group since she left. “Maggie’s coming back with really no options left, so it’s sort of a ‘I have to make this work with Negan’ [situation] – but making it work might mean one thing to her and another thing to him,” she said. “He’s pretty comfy where he is. He’s been able to redeem himself with all of these other people in the community – but that may not be enough when Maggie comes back.”

Carol will work to mend her relationship with Daryl in the new Walking Dead episodes

The extra episodes will also explore the rift forming between longtime besties Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus). Their relationship will be at the center of the episode “Find Me,” which will also include an origin for Dog.

in the season 10 midseason premiere, when our group is stuck in a cave, Carol’s determination to kill Alpha puts everyone in danger. When she leaves Daryl and the others to chase Alpha, the cave collapses and, supposedly, kills Connie and Magna. Of course, Magna lives, and Connie was revealed to be alive but has yet to appear in front of the group. Still, it was a poor decision from Carol.

We know these two will make up by the end of the show; I mean, they have already have their own spin-off in the works. But we don’t know how it’ll happen The pair of them talked about it with TV Insider. “Carol is going to work on trying to mend that relationship [with Daryl],” McBride said.

“I think Carol feels, coming out of season 10, that what she’s done and the repercussions of the choices that she’s made are not lost on her at all,” McBride told NME. “It’s like: ‘I know I had to do what I had to do, and then things happened that people are not happy with’. But which is worse: having not tried and then the worst thing happens, or having at least tried? All we can do is try.”

Reedus also teased what Daryl will be up to in these new episodes. “The Whisperers War just ended, which was exhausting, took forever and we lost a lot of people,” he said. “The characters are dealing with their PTSD from that and then Maggie’s group comes in and it’s a whole new thing. Daryl’s like: ‘Wow, that was exhausting! What, there’s another problem?!’ He never really sits still!”

The Walking Dead season 10 continues with “Home Sweet Home” this Sunday, February 28. If you’re an AMC+ subscriber, it’s available to stream now.

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