On ‘The Walking Dead’ Things Look Grim For Maggie — Is Lauren Cohan Leaving The Show?

Even before the last episode of The Walking Dead, the theory posted on the Inquisitr that Maggie (Lauren Cohan) might be in jeopardy from Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) made sense to many fans. They may not have liked it, but it made sense. Now, with Maggie being taken hostage last week along with Carol (Melissa McBride), things are looking even grimmer for the mom-to-be, expecting her first child with husband, Glenn (Steven Yeun).

So once again, Walking Dead fans are asking themselves, is Maggie going to die at the hands of Negan and his deadly bat, “Lucille?” Past episode spoilers of The Walking Dead and spoiler theories for the rest of the season follow.

As noted in the previous Walking Dead spoiler article, the writers and producers of the series love to put in “cruel twists,” and when Maggie warned Rick (Andrew Lincoln) that their deal to kill Negan would come at a cost, it was a red flag that it might be Maggie herself who paid the ultimate price. In addition, with her taking on new leadership roles in the community and becoming something of a moral compass for the group, most Walking Dead fans see some of the same warning signs before the deaths of many other Walking Dead characters. Not to mention how brutal it would be for Rick’s group if Maggie was to be killed after passing around the image of the baby growing inside her.

At the end of last week’s episode of The Walking Dead, new guest star Alicia Witt told Rick that her and a small group of Negan’s followers are holding Maggie and Carol hostage. The preview clip does not bode well for either character, but given the set up with Maggie, Vegas bookmakers probably want to make Maggie the favorite as the victim in what cast members are calling the most brutal season yet. Lincoln didn’t mince words when telling EW that fans should brace themselves for something truly gut-wrenching.

“I felt sick to my stomach when I read the script. It was the first day in the whole six years of working on The Walking Dead that I was late for work because I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was so angry and frustrated and I felt sick. And that was just after reading it.”

Cohan has been branching out to other projects besides The Walking Dead. The summer, she starred in a horror film called The Boy, where she plays nanny to a life size doll of a boy that seems to be able to come to life, and not in a good way. As one of the few remaining original characters from the series, could Cohan be ready to move on to the next stage of her career?

Perhaps, but there’s no denying how attached she is to her Walking Dead family, as evidenced during her tearful appearance on Talking Dead after her TV father Hershel (Scott Wilson) was killed. Then more recently, Cohan again became emotional talking about her co-stars during a group interview on Inside the Actors Studio.

Cohan told EW that she actually considered leaving The Walking Dead over the scene in the video above, where Judith is born, resulting in the death of Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies).

“I went to Steven [Yeun]’s door and I said, ‘I have to leave the show. I don’t think I can do it.’ It affects you so deeply to the core to touch on, to dive into so much of this material. And then I realized that’s why I have to do it, because the outcome of that — as heinous and as sleeplessly that affected me — we watch to feel and to, hopefully, honestly portray something. And bad stuff happens, and what’s the point in not getting real about it.”

Before the current story in The Walking Dead with Carol and Maggie’s kidnapping, that may have seemed like a statement not to be taken too seriously, but after all the subsequent losses, of characters — and actors — Cohan has grown close to (Hershel, Beth, Tyreese, Deanna, Noah, etc.) is The Walking Dead just taking too much of emotional toll on the actress?

[Photo by Gene Page/AMC]