Former Walking Dead Showrunner Previews The Road Ahead And Maggie’s Arc

Still reeling from last night’s season finale of The Walking Dead? We wouldn’t blame you.

AMC’s adaptation of “All-Out War,” which reached its epic conclusion with Sunday’s “Wrath,” was defined by fist-pumping highs and crippling lows – by heroic comebacks and the loss of major characters like Carl Grimes – but the show must go on. And season 9 is already in active development.

It’ll herald a pretty major shake-up behind the scenes, too, given Scott Gimple is poised to hand over the reins to Angela Kang, a long-time writer and executive producer of The Walking Dead who’s about to assume the role of series showrunner henceforth. But Gimple was still on-hand to offer up some new intel on season 8 and beyond. Spoilers to follow!

“The show evolves. They’re facing different problems with each other. And the world itself will be very, very different,” he said.

Those comments were made on last night’s rendition of Talking Dead (h/t ComicBook.com), where Scott Gimple also addressed Maggie’s arc, and why she’s about to become a very important (and potentially villainous?) character come season 9.

“It looks like that to me. Lauren [Cohan] is so amazing in that scene. She’s full Maggie Corleone. And Jesus, you know, he would not have killed the surrendering Saviors, but he’s not Morgan. Like, he could kill Negan. That certainly isn’t off the menu for Jesus.”

When it comes to Eugene’s betrayal of Negan, Gimple traced that particular plot point back to its inception:

“It was a very long time ago. It was before Eugene was taken, we had had that storyline. We knew that was going to be the final masterstroke. We did not tell him. Because it was very late that Eugene made up his mind on this thing. He was fighting something that was in him. He was always about self-preservation. He was always about keeping himself alive. But he met Abraham Ford. He met Rosita. And those people infected him with humanity. And he kept on trying to fight it, He tried to drink his way out of it, he couldn’t sleep. But in the end, the people around him affected him too deeply.”

Season 9 of The Walking Dead will likely begin filming in the coming weeks ahead of its return in October. The question, really, is whether fans can expect Maggie Rhee to switch allegiances and become the series’ next major villain. Alas, only time will tell.