Eleanor Matsuura (Yumiko) talks replacing Michonne on The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is an adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic book, but this final season has changed a lot from the source material. Of course, this is to be expected since the writers only use Kirkman’s comic as a roadmap and have to deal with things like cast members leaving the series. One of the biggest deviations from the comic is how Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) takes over Michonne’s storyline.

Michonne (Danai Gurira) left the show abruptly in season 10 after receiving information that Rick Grimes may still be alive. In the comics, Michonne reunites with her long-lost daughter Elodie inside the Commonwealth. She quickly climbs the ranks until she becomes a lawyer, the same job she had before the apocalypse. In the show, Yumiko has already found her lost brother Tomi (Ian Anthony Dale) within the community and become a lawyer herself.

“If you’ve been following the comic books, then you’d know that the lawyer storyline in the Commonwealth was originally Michonne’s,” Matsuura told Digital Spy. “They’ve been sort of setting Yumiko up for that storyline without me even realizing, because I stopped reading the comics a little while ago – it was getting too confusing.”

Eleanor Matsuura is grateful that Yumiko is getting a bigger role

Naturally, Matsuura is very enthusiastic about giving her character a bigger arc. For a while, it felt like Yumiko was a background character, but she’s now very much in the spotlight:

"It’s just such a brilliant storyline. It’s just giving Yumiko much more scope, and so much more journey to be had. I’m really grateful for that. I’ve enjoyed going on that journey, and it’s meant that I get to have scenes with characters that I wouldn’t normally have been paired with. You know, people like Josh [McDermitt], who plays Eugene. We started to work together quite closely."

It’s a shame that Yumiko is becoming so important this late in the series. The Walking Dead only has 16 episodes remaining before it ends forever. Perhaps we’ll see Yumiko in one of the myriad spinoffs coming our way. Until then, Matsuura is enjoying every minute. “I think being part of a massive machine like The Walking Dead universe has been so eye-opening,” she said. “It’s been so welcoming. You realize how many people love and adore this show so much. The fans that I got to meet – it’s literally changed my life.”

The Walking Dead season 11 airs Sundays on AMC. Fans who subscribe to AMC+ are able to watch new episodes a week early.

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